This is the C-Cactus Concept shown at Germany's Franfurt Motor Show last year, and Citroen had confirmed they'll be building - Something like it. No, the 'something' I meant was not exactly how it looks like, but rather the technology and ingenuity that goes behind. This, is Citroen at its best, yes even better than the beautiful C6. Returning to form for this French manufacturer cannot be resembled by sales figures or rally championships, but the complete breakdown of how current cars are build, and turning the direction, completely coming out with an alternative solution - That's what Citroen's all about - Revolutionizing not cars, but the industry at the same time.With the current seriousness of everyone on environmental consciousness, being Green, actually comes in many faces, some are fake, some are somewhat real, and most are plain marketing ploys. Take the Prius for example, yes it burns less fuel, and that's roughly all it is, saving money at the pumps. However, the utilization of batteries in a scale never before seen (1 million Prius was sold, each with batteries the life span of around 5-8 years), the mining anf manufacturing for materials being built into batteries produces extremely hazardous outputs to the environment, not only does greenhouse gases was poured into the atmosphere in the creation of the Prius, but toxic wastes would have to be dumped 'somewhere'. When you take the total net net production of a Toyota Prius from each and every single part involved, one Toyota Prius is more environmentally hazardous than one Range Rover.
Coming back to the C-Cactus, as we said earlier on, being environmentally friendly should not just be measured by how much fuel it burns, but rather what problems was solved in the entire chain of production from raw materials to the complete built unit. Now, this is where Citroen's ingenuity was put into good use. We all know cars are made of thousands of parts, from thousands from suppliers, from the hidden nuts and screws to the circuitry boards and polycarbonate glass etc. Where a conventional car the size of this C-Cactus would have a total number of parts ranging from 400 - 500, this C-Cactus was able to do so with 200 parts, and mind you, air conditioning, sat nav, mp3 - basic amenities were also included.
Saving down on parts count requires extensive 'creative' design to form objects that not only fits together, but incorporates different functionality into one. This would cut down on assembly time, cut down on fleets of lorries delivering parts, shipments, to the very time it helps cutting down factory works that either consumes electricity, or produces CO2 gasses. This is environmental friendly on macro scale.
A few examples of what constitutes this approach can be seen from the shape of the rear tailgates that incorporates the tail lamp, is EXACTLY THE SAME part as the front bumper, and where usual cars would need a bonnet, a front fender, grill, bumper and inserts to make up the front, the C-Cactus does so with only two parts, the bumper, and and an entire piece of bonnet consisting of the front fenders as one, and a latch to open up, for which the handles makes up for air vents as well, which opens to reveal the parts where frequent maintainence requires such as adding coolant, water, engine oil etc.
Coming to the interior, the door panels with designs are actually 'cut-outs' of the plastic door panel revealing the sound deafening foam in between all car doors, omitting the need for extra panels to decorate the interior. As for the usual center console where the stereo units, the sat nav and air con controls are, all functions are integrated on the steering wheel, even air con vents are on the steering wheel, and then there's a portable mp3 player that acts as the keys for the C-Cactus, it fits into the center console, which then allows the car to be started, and then replaces as the stereo unit of the car. Coming on to the seats, it comprises again of only two parts, a pre-moulded foam for the seat, and a pre-moulded plastic as the 'holder' for the foam.All these, adds up to a significant decrease in separate parts, cutting emissions from suppliers, cutting materials needed, and shorteneds the assembly line.
And these, are what Citroen is aiming at adapting into producing a car with such innovative ideas, and transcended the boundary of concept cars, putting into production the solutions, the ideas from the concept, much unlike conventional concepts, where the only thing put into production, are the looks.
