Design studio Mandalaki introduced the Birò O2 during Milan design week — an 80% recycled plastics concept version of Estrima’s Birò 4-wheel, all-electric city car. Current Birò owners will be hard-pressed to see any differences in the recycled version from the current model.
The Birò is a tiny two-seater sold in Europe. The EV city car fits in scooter-size parking spaces and has a removable battery in a case with wheels and a telescoping handle so owners can easily pull the battery into home or office for recharging, Dezeen reported.
Unlike most car maker’s concept vehicles, which don’t appear on the market for several years and with only hints of their initial design elements, Estrima and Mandalaki expect to start selling the Birò O2 in July.
Mandalaki ground plastic waste materials into a fine powder. The powder was then used in a molding process to create the Birò O2’s structural parts of the car. Estrima uses heavy-density ABS plastic for the same components in the current Birò. Mandalaki constructed the remaining parts of the Birò O2 from non-recycled plastic, primarily PVC.
According to Mandalaki designer Enrico De Lotto, “We try to develop projects that can have a real impact on people’s lives, and not just make things that are nice to look at — projects should be functional and solve needs.”
“For this reason, we started to work on the idea of electric mobility elevated at the maximum stage of sustainability,” De Lotto continued, “and thought that Birò could be the perfect partner to develop this concept because its model is extremely minimal. From here we began thinking about the elements of a car that we could do without, or that we could recycle. Less parts means less plastic, less things to produce, less weight to move, and so on.”
The Birò O2 has a driving range of up to 62 miles per charge and has a top speed of 40 miles per hour.
For a better idea of what the Birò looks like and how it drives in the city, watch the video below of the original Birò from Estrima’s website.
Following the Birò O2’s commercial launch in July, Mandalaki and Estrima will concentrate on their next challenge, to produce a car made of 100% recycled plastic by the end of 2020.
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Bruce Brown, Khareem Sudlow
