Sustainable and fun making

The new concept car "oli" [all-?] from 雪铁龙 and BASF pays tribute to sustainability in several ways: It reduces CO2 emissions, relies on recycling and uses the latest materials and technologies. And its unusual design makes it a versatile everyday companion.

If there is one topic that automakers worldwide want to drive forward, it is surely sustainability. Legal regulations, but also growing demand from customers, are increasingly forcing the automotive industry to break new ground and establish a sustainable value chain. Citro?n and BASF are showing what this could look like with "oli," the joint concept car recently presented in Paris. The aim of the project was to develop a vehicle that makes optimum use of lightweight and recyclable materials, has sustainable production processes and a long service life, and can be recycled at the end of its life cycle. Reduced complexity and the elimination of anything unnecessary also pay dividends in terms of sustainability. At the same time, despite all its modesty, "oli" scores with a versatile and charismatic design that is fun to use and thus becomes a companion in all situations.

Recyclable plastics from BASF

With a maximum weight of 1000 kilograms, "oli" is one of the lightweights among modern family cars. Lower weight also means a longer range and lower emissions during production. This is made possible by stable yet lightweight thermoplastics from BASF, such as Elastoflex?, Infinergy?, Elastollan?, Ultradur? or Ultramid?. The respective product families are mainly used in car interiors and have a decisive advantage: "They are incredibly versatile and allow designers to create entire components from just one and the same material," explains designer Alex Horisberger from BASF Creation Center. This facilitates mechanical recycling at the end of their useful life. Horisberger uses the car's visionary seats to explain what this looks like in concrete terms: "Backrests and headrests made of Ultrasint? are 3D printed, which ensures low-waste production. In addition, we have improved durability by treating the seats with an elastic, water-based coating made of Ultracur3D?. The seat has been massively reduced in complexity. Citro?n demonstrates here that the arms race in terms of ‘extras’ is not expedient if lightweight construction is taken seriously. In an impressive way, we see that well-designed modesty can be a real alternative."

And there is something else that makes BASF engineering plastics unbeatably ecological: thanks to the use of recycled raw materials in the ChemCyclingTM manufacturing process and renewable raw materials in the biomass balance process, fossil raw materials can be replaced in their production. For ChemCyclingTM, BASF works with technology partners who turn mixed plastic waste into a secondary raw material, pyrolysis oil. Tires that have reached the end of their life cycle can also be converted into oil via chemical recycling and then recycled.

Customers can therefore further process materials from ChemCyclingTM and the biomass balance approach and utilize them in sophisticated applications in the same way as BASF's conventional plastics.

This oil is fed into the chemical production network at the beginning of the value chain. The proportion of recycled or biobased raw materials is assigned to the respective plastic by a mass balance procedure audited by independent third parties – a principle similar to that of green electricity: although consumers do not know whether exactly the electricity they use in their households comes from renewable sources, the proportion of green electricity in the overall grid nevertheless increases with higher demand. The mass-balanced plastic products subsequently have the same properties as the conventional products.

Automotive coatings: environmentally friendly and process-saving

In addition to plastics, "oli" also uses particularly environmentally friendly BASF automotive coatings such as R-M? AGILIS?. The water-based paint line has extremely low levels of volatile organic compounds with 250g/L below 40% global VOC regulations. And because it can be applied particularly quickly and efficiently in the application process with Pioneer series e’sense products based on renewable resources, its greatly reducing CO2 emissions. it produces far lower CO2 emissions than other paint systems. "Due to a faster application and shorter flash-off times, customers can expect overall savings of up to 35 percent in terms of process times compared to existing basecoat lines on the market. Up to another 20 percent can be saved due to reduced material consumption," says Geoffrey Gustin, global strategic account manager, Automotive Refinish Coatings Solutions. "All of this pays into the sustainability of 'oli'."