Why this is interesting: In May, I sent out a prayer for an OEM to buck the bigger battery-is-better trend. Citroen’s answered my plea.

Citroen is garnering plaudits for it's delightful oli concept. It's cute. It's tough. It's a little slice of pugnacious positivity in a world gone awry.

It's also a compelling counterargument to EV arms race in which most OEMs are engaged. To add driving range, manufacturers pile in more battery capacity to increase performance and range, which then requires more battery capacity to counteract the weight of that extra battery capacity. Yes, it really is that circular and exhausting. It's also immensely wasteful.

Back in May, I wrote about research from the University of Geneva that showed that 200Km of range would cover 90% of day-to-day driving needs. I also suggested that

"In an industry which sells, for the most part, on more is more and less is a bore, it’ll take a brave team to pursue a message of less is enough."

That brave team is Citroen, and their battle cry is Assez!, or, Enough! (You can see the superb launch video here.)

The oli's battery has a (relatively) small 40kWh capacity. The vehicle weighs a tiny (for an urban SUV) 1000Kg. Its top speed is (an entirely reasonable) 110Km/h.

And its range?

Well, by saying Enough! to the engineering bloat that characterises much EV development these days, Citroen offers a projected 400Km.

Which is just about the only thing of which oli has more than enough.