‘YOU HAVE TO THINK BEYOND NORMAL’
The radical Oli concept gives a tantalising look at Citroën’s future. But, according to its CEO there is much more to come. Here is Vincent Cobée’s manifesto for change
Less excess, less consumption – but more fun. Cars of the future must be sustainable while still delivering mobility, freedom and aspiration. We must treasure and desire them. That’s easy to write but hard to do. The Oli concept is a demonstration of that belief.
It sounds obvious to say that natural resources have a limited supply, but it’s a realisation that society is only just coming to. There’s a shift to restraint and sobriety, and expectation that our actions should have at least a neutral impact on the planet we live on.
The tension is that very few people wake up in bed in the morning energised by sacrifices they have to make. This sustainable vision has to be desired, not endured – and at Citroën we believe that if we change our thinking, then we can get there. We all want to wake up excited by our cars. Acting in a positive way for the planet doesn’t have to be sad.
In fact, it can’t be: there won’t be mass adoption of sustainable ideas unless they are attainable, useful and fun. That’s what Oli is: bright, innovative, a little bit cheeky and, above all, affordable. World exclusive: it’s never going to spawn a £250,000 supercar!
We want to put Citroën at the forefront of that debate, because that is where it belongs. Citroën has been challenging conventions throughout its history, so let’s have the energy to do it again. We might get it right. We might get it wrong. But let’s dare to be different.
The 2CV offered liberation when comfort wasn’t as important as freedom; DS brought an engineering revolution when it was. Mehari was a tiny, lightweight plastic car in 1968! We have always believed there can be another route to the destination.
For all that, when you put a car like Oli out there, you’re taking a leap of faith: it’s a bit philosophical, but as CEO I am saying to my team that I believe in the value of their ideas. We all have business objectives for today, but I’m giving space to think about tomorrow. Not everybody gets that freedom because this business moves so fast.
There were nerves, though. What kind of reaction were we going to get for Oli? The styling is different. The philosophy is different. If you don’t take the time to understand it, the easy headline is that it is a car made out of cardboard. It’s so much more than that.
What we’ve learned is that there’s a movement towards everyone understanding they are a citizen of the planet. Sure, younger generations show it more, but the idea that we live in a world with limited resources has registered, and most people want to do something about it.
Our daring ideas have been broadly welcomed – and thank goodness, because if they were not, then what is the point of Citroën owner Stellantis having 14 different car brands?
The absolute key with Oli is to look deeply into what it means, where it fits into the circular economy and what that means for how we ‘sell’ cars in future. Everything has to change – but you have to think beyond normal automotive boundaries to enact that change.
Let’s be honest: in the simplest terms, car companies have been ‘firing and forgetting’ sales forever. The factory fires out the cars, the cars are sold, we look after them while they are under warranty and we move on, desperate to fire some more cars out of the factory doors.
That can’t be our future. Let’s take a breath,
❝ There won’t be mass adoption of sustainable ideas unless they are attainable, useful and fun. That’s what Oli is ❞
consider the planet and our business model. Let’s build a vehicle that can last, say, 15 to 20 years, not eight to 10, and maintain it. We’ll own it throughout that period and lease it. If the owner wants to upgrade the car, maybe change some panels on it for a different colour, maybe upgrade the software. If they want to switch to a newer model, we’ll offer them a discount to stay with our brand, and we’ll refurbish their old car and lease it to another customer.
And that circular ownership model means the materials we use have to be sustainable too – not just in what they are made from, but also in how they are processed and recycled. Car parts need to come together as cogs in a much bigger wheel that keeps turning.
The data tells us that more than 85% of a car is recyclable today. That’s great. But how much is actually recycled? Okay, it’s hard to be sure, but the data suggests more like 15-20%. Being recyclable and being recycled are two very different things today, but why don’t we try to do a bit better? We have to try to do a bit better.
Why paint bumpers if it limits their potential to be recycled? Why have a huge glass windscreen if you can achieve great visibility with a smaller but more upright panel? If you plan for 100% recycling in 15 to 20 years’ time, then it changes what you do: you don’t glue or melt materials together that need recycling but use one compound with no treatments and which can be recycled. And, in a way, you are then forced to be a bit more creative with how you use that compound. Restraint sparks innovation. Let’s find another way.
Can we do all this alone? No. A business for the planet will have to be anchored in society alongside other businesses: we can build cars, but there are areas we will struggle in; we can invest to encourage suppliers to move in new directions and we can accept we don’t know it all and partner with affiliates. No more fire and forget. If you are anchored in a society, you have to provide value at every level.
It needs holistic thinking, but this is where the industry can play a larger role than even today. Where are we looking to store all this green energy we are aiming to create? All these batteries in all these EVS could suddenly have a greater use to society than we have even dared to imagine. Owning a car to help the planet may not be hypocritical, after all.
Are there downsides? Maybe, depending on your outlook. As an example, there’s no company today that can reliably supply plastic panels from recyclable materials on an industrial level. So we either invest in a supplier to find a solution, or we alter our expectations. Human behaviour can be habitual: most people would object to eating a black ice cream, but maybe we need to innovate and retrain ourselves a bit.
We are at a point where the tension between capitalism and environmentalism is profound. Car makers have two routes. They can follow fast fashion, and mass produce cheaply at a high environmental cost, or they can go high fashion, where the clothing is durable and ethically created, using traceable materials, made in monitored factories, transported in a low-emission way and often made to order, so there’s no waste.
We want Citroën to be part of high fashion, and we believe our customers do too. Even if that jars a bit with you now, I can promise that future generations will know the difference. For our children’s generation, it will be normal to demand that what we buy is underpinned by strong ethics. A socially militant company wakes up each day with the purpose of making society better tomorrow; Oli is a first step, and that’s where we want Citroën to be.