Citroën's new Oli rolls on 'renewable' Goodyear Eagles

POISSY, France — French car brand Citroën's latest concept vehicle, the Oli, is an electric-powered multi-activity family vehicle that takes sustainability to the extreme, from its recycled corrugated cardboard body panels to the Goodyear Eagle Go tires.

While the Oli's angular exterior design presents a striking departure from what might be considered the norm today, its dimensions are similar to a conventional compact SUV at 13-plus feet long, 5 feet 4 inches high and 6 feet wide.

The relatively lightweight (2,200 pounds) vehicle is powered by an all-electric 40kWh battery-driven powertrain can deliver a target range of up to 400km. The Oli's top speed to limited to 68 mph to maximize efficiency and recharging to 80% from 20% takes just 23 minutes, Citroën claims.

The Eagle Go concept tire, size 235/55R20, features a tread compound made almost entirely of sustainable or recycled materials, Goodyear said, such as sunflower oils, pine tree resins, natural rubber and rice husk ash silica, and employs the tire maker's SightLine technology, which includes a sensor that monitors a variety of tire health parameters.

This technology is already being applied to help Goodyear fleet customers and could significantly reduce waste and increase efficiency by maintaining ideal pressure and tire condition.

Monitoring the health of the tire is an important factor in determining whether or when a tire can be renewed, thus increasing circularity and efficiency, Goodyear said, adding that the Eagle GO concept is designed to retreaded twice across its lifetime.

Goodyear has set an objective for the Eagle Go concept tire to achieve up to 300,000 miles (500,000 kilometers) of tire life through the reuse of the sustainable carcass and a renewable tread. Goodyear did not elaborate on what technology or infrastructure it envisions for retreading tires of this size and application.

"Tire architecture has come a long way by incorporating sustainable materials and smart technologies," Laurent Colantonio, Goodyear's regional technology director, consumer, Europe/Middle East/Africa. "With Citroën, we have a relationship that provides a great testbed for developing and testing new technologies and techniques."

The Eagle Go is the third concept tire Goodyear has developed in the past few years with Citroën.

In 2021, Goodyear designed and built a spherical tire, dubbed the Eagle 360, that Citroën used to propel its pod-based Autonomous Mobility Vision vehicle, , and in 2019 Goodyear supplied the French car maker with a tall, narrow and connected concept known as "C100" for the Citroën 19_19 concept vehicle.