Green Car Design/Review - Special Detroit Motor Show 2013

Registration is now openFinal submissions due June 1, 2013

Congratulations to the 2013 winners: HALF! Lightweight with Passion

2 0 1 3 M I C H E L I N C H A L L E N G E D E S I G N F I N A L I S T S

Thierry Dumaine, France

Andrea Filogonio, Italy

Wei Guo, China

Jeremy Helle, USA

Lucas Lopez, Argentina

Takashi Nishimura, Japan

Vruttant Phatak, India

Cristian Polanco, Guatemala

XiaoQuan Qian, China

Jose Eduardo Sanches, Mexico

Antonis Schley, Germany

Marcel Sebestyen, Hungary

Jorge Biosca, Spain Song Wei Teo, UK Shun Liu, China

WINNERS

20142013

www.michelinchallengedesign.com

As vehicle autonomy is emerging as an

essential component of future mobility

systems, Michelin is looking to recognize

future vehicle designs which offer unique

features to engage your interests while

in the autonomous mode, yet creatively

transform into a vehicle for experiencing

driving pleasure and exploring life’s

adventures in new and meaningful ways.

OICA’S MISSION

OICA, the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Man-ufacturers, was originally founded in 1919, with headquarters in Paris.

OICA has as its members 37 national professional associations on all five continents and consequently represents practically the entire world automobile industry.

The main tasks of OICA are to defend and promote the in-terests of vehicle manufacturers and importers, through their national federation.

OICA was granted consultative status at the United Nations in 1956.

OICA activities are conducted mainly through its four special-ised committees, all under the leadership of the General As-sembly and the Council

These committees are the Technical Committee, the Commu-nication Committee, the Statistics Committee and the Exhibi-tion Committee.

WHAT IS OICA?

The general objectives of OICA are to :

Defend the interests of vehicle manufacturers, assemblers and importers.

- Ensure a permanent link between the national Associations of the automobile industry.

- Undertake studies on any question of mutual interest relat-ing to the development and future of the automobile and its industry.

Establish, whenever possible and where appropriate, conver-gent standpoints of the automobile industry on the same ques-tions.

- Collect and circulate, for the benefit of these Associations and their respective members, any useful information available in these areas.

- Represent - whenever this is felt advisable - the automobile industry at the international level, in particular with the com-petent intergovernmental and international bodies, as well as other international organizations concerned with these ques-tions.

- Disseminate and promote automobile industry common viewpoints amongst these bodies and the general public.

5

[email protected]

WEBSITEwww.greencardesign.com

FACEBOOK/greencardesign

TWITTER@greencardesign

I am thrilled to introduce our first ever Detroit Special magazine, dedicated to anticipating what’s to come at this

year’s exciting show at the Cobo Hall in downtown Detroit. This edition is packed with reviews of cars we have driven over the last few months, interviews with designers at the top of their game – like comeback-kid J Mays – and features such as an inside look at Local Motors and the contradiction that is carbon fibre. New to our magazine is a book review – unusual for us but the content was so integral to what we do that we had to reach out to Belgian author Bart Lenaerts to get one hot off the press. It was worth it.

On the cover we have none other than the lovely Lola Drayson – a potent sign of things to come for electric cars on both road and track. Furthermore, with Formula 1 stagnating a little, the FIA announced their intentions for an electric sibling to F1 back in 2011 that’s is now set to commence in 2014. 2013 will see Formula E races in Rio and Rome (with some American venues in discussion to whet the appetite) and the introduction of this new kind of sport to the public. We were lucky enough to visit future Formula E competitor Drayson Racing Technologies’ workshop and our photographer, Olgun Kordal, was certainly on form with the lens.

To round off we asked mia electric’s David Wilkie to part with some words of wisdom about green car design. As the world of automotive design keeps pushing towards more automation and connectivity he asks ‘why?’ Do we really need all this information all the time? Does everything need to move so fast? Perhaps by using the principle of Slow Design we can recapture our own values and place in the world without always being in such a rush. I, and hope you, would certainly subscribe to that.

Enjoy this Detroit Special and, as always, please send us your ideas, thoughts and feedback.

FounderHannah Macmurray

FROM THE FOUNDER P.41

CONTENTS

6

P.60 P.52

P.68

P.65 P.29

DETROIT SPECIAL

P.20

20 ADRIAN VAN HOOYDONKElectric supercars, slippery coupés and driving appeal. GCD catches up with the man running the show at the world’s most desirable car company

29Here are some of our favourite drives of the last few months along with beautiful photography

DRIVEN

50Rock City, Motor City; perhaps Detroit isn’t as famous for green cars as it is for V8s, but over the years we’ve seen some great eco-reveals at NAIAS

HISTORY OF ECO-DESIGN

56 ARE WE NEARLY THERE YET?Why do only Tesla seemingly have the magic recipe for a range of over 100 miles? Steve Davies takes a look at the battery scene

52 STRENGTH IN NUMBERSCrowd-sourcing is something we’d normally associate with software not cars, but in Arizona they’re making it work

68 LAST WORDWhy is speed of the essence? Ex-Bertone boss David Wilkie explains why it’s a good idea to take it easy and enjoy life

60 J MAYSIs it possible not to look stupid whilst driving a Twizy? Ford’s chief designer explains why everybody’s suddenly taking Ford seriously again

58 THE LOOPHOLE EXPRESSIt’s one big battleground when it comes to emissions laws, but the US has further to catch up that the rest of the developed world. Can it?

14Formula One will have an electric counterpart next year; here’s what to expect from a company who have already built an electric racer

RUN LOLA RUN

12Electrification of our cities started to kick off in 2012, and here are some of the most exciting and promising emobility schemes worldwide

EMOBILITY 41Rock City, Motor City; whatever you call it, the latest creations of the motor industry are coming to the US’s largest motor show. Here’s what to expect

DETROIT PREVIEW

42Car Design Research give us a preview of their latest trend analysis in the autmotive world

CDR INSIGHT

48Going electric? Here’s what you need to know about the Leaf/Model S/Ford Focus you’re lining up and where all that energy is coming from

INFOGRAPHIC

25Carbon fibre: lighter than aluminium and stronger than steel, but about as clean as a burning oil rig. What does the future hold for this super-substance?

THE CARBON PARADOX 66So what exactly goes on between the ears of the world’s most influential car designers? Bart Lenaerts’ Masters of Modern Car Design reveals all

FOR THE COFFEE TABLE

tGREEN CAR DESIGN

8

GREEN CAR

DESIGN * WORKSH

OP

2012

*

FounderHannah Macmurray

EditorRichard Lane

Contributing EditorAdam Jefferson

Contributing WritersEric GallinaSteve DaviesFrank SchwartzDavid Wilkie

PhotographyOlgun KordalGary Morrisroe

Graphic DesignerHelen Stella

CommunicationsFatima Bettache

PrintingTRMG Ltd1 Forum PlaceHatfieldHerts, AL0 0RN+44 (0)1707 273 999www.trmg.co.uk

Green Car Design Ltd5 Kendrick MewsLondon SW7 3HGUnited Kingdomwww.greencardesign.com

DETROIT SPECIAL

Steve Davies is an angel investor, technology advisor and venture financier who founded the digital publishing venture, Drivers Republic, in 2008. He’s a former Consulting Partner and VP in KPMG, PriceWaterhouse Coopers and Bain and ex-MD of Experian’s Integrated Marketing business. He currently publishes the automotive marketing blog, SkiddMark, and is a life-long car enthusiast with a passion for anything with a steering wheel, no matter how it’s propelled.

Eric Gallina has always had a passion for automobiles. An avid journalist and photographer, Eric rose to become Editor of Car Design News following his MA studies at Coventry University. At the start of 2012 he began a freelance career covering the automotive design sector for a range of worldwide titles, regularly covering new car launches and auto shows for GCD.

Frank Schwartz is the main voice behind thethesupplierblog.com - spiritual successor to the chromtecblog. A long time automotive enthusiast, Frank has spent years working hand in hand with the automotive industry on products as varied as cruise controls, fuel injection systems, exterior lighting, trim components and wheels. thesupplierblog is intended to be a real-world resource.

www.turnmeonnow.com

Big Rethink ad 216x280.indd 1 04/01/2013 15:57

www.rosslovegrove.com

DETROIT SPECIAL

You may have heard of Renault’s revolutionary Twizy – a small, cheap EV with a tandem-seating layout. It’s been

something of a success in Europe with sales figures easily surpassing Renault’s initial estimates, and now Honda

wants a piece of the baby-EV pie. Trials have begun in Japan for what appears to be a jazzed-up

Twizy, with two seats side-by-side, razor-sharp light signatures and a tablet-sized digital

readout. The prototype’s USP, however, is its variable design platform, which means that on top of the mechanical

components you can mount a pick-up body, a roadster body or

an enlarged, three-seat layout for families with two kids.

Clever.

Soon to

be in a number

of European cities, the

curious Hiriko car-sharing project

addresses two of today’s most pressing

urban problems – emissions and space – with a folding

(yes, folding) electric car. To ‘fold’, the little EV shortens its

wheelbase to less than 2 metres, and compensates vertically as the cabin rotates. The Hiriko can also rotate through 360 degrees on the spot, so think of it as a multi-purpose

Unimog for the city. The 75-mile range goes a long way in the city,

too, and there’s even talk of the Hiriko being offered for private

sale to individuals, rumoured to be at a price of €12,500.

So you want to get from your house to, say, the train station as quickly and economically as possible. You don’t mind using different modes of transport, but not taxis because they are expensive and unnecessarily harmful to the environment. Most of all, you want it to be easy. Ha:mo (harmonious:mobility) works through a smart phone app that monitors traffic reports and advises on a route – whether it be using buses, trains, one of the scheme’s electric cars or even a combination of the three. The trial aims to provide seamless, low-emission transport routes by linking individuals and transport system operators.

Car2go is carsharing

at its most convenient. You sign up, pay 38 cents a minute (which may mean a mile or a meter depending on traffic) and you’re away in a smart fortwo, which in some locations is electric. Parking charges, fuel costs and any tax or insurance is covered by car2go, but don’t lose the key as it will set you back $400. To get your hands on a car you can either book online 30 minutes in advance or you can just hop into a car you find on the street and then park it up when finished in an approved parking space. The scheme currently operates in seven US cities, including Portland, Austin and Seattle.

TOYOTA -

HA:MO

DAIMLER - CAR2GOHIRIKO - FOLD

HONDA

- MICR

O COMMUTER

EMOBILITYWhy is emobility important? Probably because at

some point we’re going to have to ditch combustion-engined vehicles in cities worldwide. From Toyota’s

integrated transportation system to folding car-sharing schemes, here’s a snapshot of what’s

happening...

14

RUN LOLA RUNWords: Richard Lane Photography: Olgun Kordal

More concerned with revenue than technological advancement, F1’s golden days are in the past.

Now it’s time for motorsport to lead the way again

DETROIT SPECIAL

It’s very quiet on the lustrous workshop floor at Drayson Racing Technologies HQ in Oxfordshire. No tools in sight,

no doors left ajar, and not even the faintest whiff of oil - just a liveried transporter and two race cars up on chassis stands like some kind of space age gun rack. First is the repeater rifle – an Aston Martin Vantage-based GT2 car powered by second-generation bio-ethanol that the team has successfully raced around the world. The second car has more in common with a railgun – it’s a Le Mans-spec Lola Drayson B12/69EV that’s the ultimate showcase for

what an electric car is capable of. Both look stirring in British Racing Green, but it’s the Lola that we’re here to see. DRT describe the B12/69EV as a technology demonstration platform, and are using the project to get a head start in the expertise of technology that they think is going to be important. Just like the Williams FW14B was an augury for road car technology in the early 1990’s, the B12/69EV incorporates features like wireless charging and uses advanced lithium iron phosphate batteries that can expel charge considerably faster than next door’s Nissan

Leaf. It also has the capability to charge those batteries on the move. The project is an ambitious research venture into green motorsport by former Science Minister Lord Paul Drayson and his wife Elspeth, and the B12 is a running test bed for a car that will eventually compete in Formula E, the electric equivalent of Formula One that’s due to commence in 2014. Put simply, the B12 is a tangible illustration of what the future of motorsport could look like, and with under-track inductive charging, even the 24 Hours of Le Mans could be electric in twenty years time.

Things that go fast. That, for me, is what engineering’s all about

Lord Drayson

16

The Lola Drayson B12/69EV isn’t wanting for presence, and twenty-four of these thundering around a racetrack would be something to behold

It’s worth noting that the top-spec Tesla Model S generates less power overall than the B12 does from just

two of its four motors

LOLA DRAYSON

POWER

TOP SPEED

0-60 MPH

0-100 MPH

WEIGHT

ENDURANCE

B12/69EV

640 kW / 850 bhp

200 mph

3.0 s

5.1 s

1,100 kg

15 mins

DETROIT SPECIAL

THE CAR Shod with a set of warm Dunlop slicks, the B12 reaches 60mph in three seconds flat. Just 2.1 seconds later and you’re into three figures. Keep your foot down and the B12 continues pulling hard into a thickening atmosphere – in the inexorable way native to electric cars - until it reaches a top speed that nudges 200mph. If the B12’s staggering speed isn’t entirely unique at the ultra-competitive apex of global motorsport, then its realization exclusively through the flow of electrons certainly is. Without a drop of oil in sight, the B12 instantly shatters the ‘eco-box’ myth.It takes a moment or two to get your head around the Lola Drayson B12/69EV. Built on the current Lola chassis, it looks just like a LMP1 category competitor; specifically the kind that pound La Sarthe at speeds of

up to 230mph equipped with a V10 engine coupled to a six-speed sequential gearbox. This conventional setup couldn’t be further from the reality, for although the B12 was initially outfitted with a five-and-a-half-litre biofuel engine, in its place now sit four YASA-750H electric motors, each delivering 160kW of power. It’s worth noting that the top-spec Tesla Model S (which will dispatch a BMW F10 M5 in a straight line) generates less power overall than the B12 does from just two of its four motors. Torque, all of it going through the rear wheels, is rated at 3,000Nm. That’s not a typo; the B12 really does generate nearly three times the torque of the Porsche’s Herculean 917/30 Can-Am Spyder. So the B12 is fast, but there’s more to it than that. Although the car is constructed around

an LMP1-spec carbon fibre monocoque, the nose cone is constructed from recycled carbon fibre – a process for which technology is steadily advancing – and the louvres adorning the reptilian fenders are rendered from hemp. Regenerative braking is a technology we are familiar with on road cars, but the B12 additionally incorporates energy recovery damping, whereby energy absorbed from bumps in the track and under braking, rather than being dissipated, is harvested into a separate battery that powers the car’s low-energy electrical systems – a system that could capitalize on Britain’s threadbare road surfaces. From a racing viewpoint an electric motor may simply be a more efficient method of propulsion than a combustion engine, but the B12 has a conscience all the same.

FORM WITH FUNCTION Motorsport categories are defined by the cars that race in them. F1 cars, for example, are the definitive example of form following function, but with less than half the downforce and more emphasis on mechanical grip, Formula E cars – including Drayson Racing’s competitor (yet to be seen) – have an opportunity look beautiful as well as adhering to aerodynamic and packaging criteria. And who doesn’t wish that Kimi

Raikkonen’s Lotus E20 looked more like Jim Clark’s 49?Taking Sergio Rinland’s (ex-designer for Sauber and Benetton) concept rendering as inspiration (overleaf), students on the Vehicle Design programme at the Royal College of Art are competing to design a car that will race in Rome and Rio de Janeiro, amongst other cities, when the series starts in 2014. Workshops on materials, production engineering and aerodynamics

will help the students but there will be creative scope in addition to the scientific parameters.The popularity of Formula E will hinge on a few factors – notably its sustainable nature and audience interaction – but this alliance between what will likely be one of the leading teams and the RCA presents an opportunity for Formula E to capture the imagination in a manner than simply isn’t yet possible in motorsport events.

18

Formula E new to you? For more on the rules, the tech and what to expect, follow this QR code

Students at the Royal College of Art will base

their designs on designer Sergio Rinland’s concept

Q&A WITH LORD DRAYSON

Why is racing such a draw to you?

F1 is how I got my interest in engineering and science. I grew up near Brands Hatch – my dad used to take me to what Formula One races at Brands Hatch – and it was through that that I got interested in cars, things that go fast, and that for me is what engineering’s all about.

Can Formula E be as exciting as Formula One?

Absolutely. This is different - this is not like F1. The cars will be very hard to race. A Formula One car is driven by the world’s best racing drivers, but they have a huge amount of downforce, so you can take speed into corners with huge confidence that it will turn in. It’s the same with the Lola, you can take 6th gear corners flat that are generating 4.5G in the cockpit. The feeling is insane.

So the racing will be more ‘organic’ than modern-day Formula One?

Yes, that’s what racing Formula E cars is going to be like – because there’s not going to be very much grip. The cars will have a huge amount of power, and a huge amount of torque – it will be very easy to light up the rear tyres – and it’s going to put a premium on the finesse and sensitivity of the drivers.

Who’s going to watch Formula E?

Formula E needs to be for the generation that is now coming through – that spends a lot of time on, and is very comfortable being part of, a network; that expects interaction; expects to have a voice and be involved rather than simply watching someone else do something. Formula E will make them feel like they’re part of something bigger – a real event.

Do you feel that Formula E will be in the shadow of Formula One?

No, Formula E will be quite different from a traditional motorsports event; the concept, the technology that’s used, and the integration of the live event to internet

streaming, live gaming – so you race against the drivers in real time – and features like Twitter boost (where drivers will receive a power boost in relation to their popularity on Twitter). This all possible, whereas it isn’t for F1 or Le Mans as the rights are all signed up and there’s heritage and sponsorship issues. The great thing FE has is a clean sheet of paper.

Apart from the obvious, what’s going to set Formula E apart?

You’re connected to a worldwide base of Formula E fans that enables you to have a voice and a view on a sustainable future. Young people really care about this challenge, but they don’t want to be lectured by people or made to feel bad - what they want is to go out and have a good time with something that isn’t damaging the planet. Electric cars in a sustainable sporting championship is a first. That means a lot for marketing companies that are looking to connect with that demographic, and want to associate themselves with that tribe. They would not usually look at Formula One.

DESIGN DOK-ING XD INTERIORDok-ing XD is concept EV that is looking for a new interior so it partnered with Auto® to create this design challenge. Auto® is the largest automotive design conference in Europe since 2009. We're excited to see your concept sketches for XD! The best project will be brought to life and presented in next Dok-ing concept car. We offer you a unique chance to see your work executed and enjoy the fame. Additionally, winner will receive a Pen Tablet, valued at $650. Deadline for submission is 1st March 2013. The jury will choose winner and twenty best works will be presented in Zagreb (Croatia), 5-7 April at Auto®.

www.automotivedesignconference.com

Auto® 2012 atmosphere

SECTION NAME

20

ADRIAN VAN HOOYDONK

Words: Hannah Macmurray & Richard Lane

but under Adrian van Hooydonk BMW are embarking on the most exciting era in their history

Filling the boots of Chris Bangle is no

easy task

DETROIT SPECIAL

Do you think that cars are becoming too ‘over-designed’?

It’s a good question because, without talking about specific products, I think the times we live in are interesting. On the one hand, the customers want more and more – more space, more details, more chrome and there seems to be a bit of competition going on between the manufacturers. Then, I think there is a trend towards more individuality, and possibly MINI started that because, if you look at MINI, it started with different coloured roofs and then stickers and a lot more on the interior. I think it is fair to say that ten years after the restart of MINI, there are a lot of companies that are implementing such things.

At the same time there is this ‘new mobility’, these zero-emission drivetrains and whole new layouts, and I see this as an opportunity. Maybe this will lead to a completely new design direction – at least that is our take, because if you look at BMW’s ‘i’ products, the layouts are new; the proportions are new, but we also decided to develop a new form language. That form language should communicate what is underneath. Since the cars are so clean we wanted the cars to look clean. So, in a way, with the design of the i3 and i8, especially in the interiors, you’ll find that the design looks clean and almost reduced. Calm, if you will, but still luxurious.

But the very concept of ‘ luxury’ is changing?

I think there are two things going on right now in the world of car design. One is that luxury is provided by ‘more’, and then in the ‘i’ products we are going to offer something that we call “next premium”, which is something of a recalibration. I think it is possible to make premium products that look very clean. Almost simple, but still engaging and emotional. I think the i3 and the i8 are going to do that. Time will tell where the whole

industry will go, but this is what we’re trying to do here at BMW Group.

So this is how BMW turn ‘electric’ into ‘ luxury’, by removing superfluous details and allowing them to engage with the fundamental design?

Yes, when we started these products we knew full well that people’s ideas a couple of years back about electric mobility were probably not very emotional – they probably couldn’t imagine that it could be emotionally engaging. The whole idea behind the i3 and i8 concepts is to show that electric mobility will be fun to drive and that electric cars are not slow. The production cars are around the corner, and they will be very close to the concept cars that you see here. Some people have put down deposits for the i8 – they don’t know when it will come or how much it will cost, but they want one. And who’s really pushing ‘green’ design at BMW; is it the designers or the engineers or marketing; who?

The whole company, and our CEO, has said that in the future ‘premium’, which is what BMW offer, will be more and more defined by sustainability. At first, it will be something new, but over ten or fifteen years from now it will be expected and if you don’t have it you can no longer be a premium brand. So, for us, it is of strategic importance. In the design department, we wanted to give it a creative spin. On a rational level, everyone knows that zero-emissions is probably a good thing. If you ask a man if the street he says, “Yes, that’s good”, but if you ask if whether he’s going to buy one he’ll say, “I don’t know, it depends what it looks like”. That’s the story, so it’s our job to make sure that it looks desirable and that people will want it. One day it will be normal.

The ‘ i’ cars will become part of a lifestyle, then?

I don’t know, it’s hard to say because they’re not on sale yet, but I think that it’s a mental attitude or an attitude to life. What we’ve found out is that you can’t really pinpoint potential customers for these kinds of brands. There are all sorts of people from different walks of life that care about the environment, but they express it in different ways. They don’t necessarily have to be loud about it, but they want to express it, and maybe so far they haven’t found a car that will allow them to do both. Have you driven the i8 yourself?

I have, but in a very early stage, and right now there are prototypes being tested all around the world and every month it’s improving. We compared it to some, shall we say, ‘normal’ sports cars and they couldn’t keep up with it.

That’s not surprising, but having built hatchback and sportscar ‘ i’ models, there’s surely room for more variants in the range. What’s next?

We do think that there’s room for more, but we also think that there’s a bit of time before we have to answer that question. As you can imagine, developing two cars like that, that are so radically new, simultaneously, takes quite an effort. We’re talking about drive trains that are completely new, battery technology that is new and a carbon fibre chassis which, let’s not forget, is something that nobody has done in larger scale production. Both cars being in the test phase keeps us quite busy, and we’re aiming towards market launch sometime next year and then we’ll have to see. We believe that by 2020, 10-15% of vehicles that we sell will be hybrid or electric, but this kind of thing is really hard to predict. At the moment, this combination of ‘emotion’, ‘premium’, and ‘sustainable’ is not yet available on the market – we might not be the only ones in a couple of years – but we feel that the world won’t change overnight.

Dutch designer Adrian van Hooydonk leads the design teams for not only BMW, but also for MINI and Rolls Royce - the prestigious trinity offereing something for everyone. It’s

BMW we’re most interested in, though, with daring electric ‘i’ concepts nearing production and a new, front-wheel drive, plug-in hybrid. So how does van Hooydonk feel about electric

luxury, arrogant designers, and the public’s ability to assimilate electric vehicles into their lifestyles?

22

Obviously you’ve just launched the Active Tourer concept, what are you most satisfied about?

I think that, judging from the reactions we’ve had, it seems to have been accepted as a ‘good’ BMW. That was our main objective. It’s a car that we have never done before - there is no predecessor model – and this always makes the design project a bit more exciting because there’s no reference point in our history. Then the front-wheel drive is new to BMW and that leads to new proportions and a new architecture, a monovolume architecture,

which we never before used, and all of this makes it exciting. People seem to recognise it as a BMW, even with these proportions and with front-wheel drive – I think that was the main objective.

There’s definitely a balance between the harder edges and soft lines that you don’t always get with German cars, and the transversely mounted 3-cylinder engine allows you to taper the nose more than ever.

Every drivetrain presents its own opportunities and if you want to do a car with

So what would you, personally, like to design next, and how autonomous are BMW’s designers?

Actually, typically my wishes come true. In terms of design at least- not in everything. As a design department, we’re working on successor products to cars and motorcycles you see here – that’s the main job. We are also tasked with thinking up new concepts and we actually get some freedom from the company to develop completely new ideas. Not all of them will be produced but, in a sense, we are very free to offer ideas to the company. I believe we need to have more ideas than the company can produce – it would be very bad the other way round.

DETROIT SPECIAL

good interior space and variability then front-wheel drive offers some advantages. You get the flat floor, you don’t get the tunnel coming through, so you can offer quite a lot of space and a relatively small footprint, and then it’s maybe a bit more challenging with a shorter car to make it look fast or dynamic and elegant. With a 5 or 7 Series you can make a line run for over five meters, and that makes it easier. It’s harder to do on a shorter car; I think that our design team have managed to do a good job with that. The car that you see is here is very close to the production car that will come.

And what is it that makes your design team special?

It’s a difficult question, but I think that they all have the same mentality, we are always looking towards the future and we don’t have any designers that are going to lean back. It doesn’t work like that, as a designer you always think that you can do better. You’re always thinking that the next car is going to be even better. I would say that all of my team is motivated; I never have to come in on Monday morning and do a motivational speech. They love cars and motorcycles, they

love driving, and they love design. I think it shows in every detail. I think over the years that we’ve managed to recruit some of the best designers in the world but we have no prima donnas. For me, the atmosphere in the team is extremely important, you probably know that design is developed in competition, so each designer competes with his or her colleagues, anybody can win, and this could lead to an awful atmosphere, but in our team it doesn’t. I think the competitions are run very fairly, but the designers also help and motivate each other. This, to me, has become key. I will never hire a designer, even if he or she is very good, if they are arrogant. One person like that in the team can ruin everything.

Although the all-electric i3 is due next year (and since Audi have scrapped their A2 it will have no real rivals), we’ ll

have to wait until 2014 for the halo i8 hybrid

Mix Trends

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Colour rationalisation

Seminars & web presentations

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Global Color Research™ Limited publishes Mix Trends colour forecast book and Mix magazine for colour, design & trendsTel: +44 (0)20 7481 1507 Fax: +44 (0)20 7481 1548 Email: [email protected]

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mix-magazine/260603860715

Helping your business make the right colour choices...

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Mix Trends

Mix magazine

Colour consultancy

Trend analysis & reports

Forecasting services

Colour psychology

Colour branding

Colour rationalisation

Seminars & web presentations

Installations & exhibition displays

Point of sale & merchandising

Packaging

Printing solutions

Global Color Research™ Limited publishes Mix Trends colour forecast book and Mix magazine for colour, design & trendsTel: +44 (0)20 7481 1507 Fax: +44 (0)20 7481 1548 Email: [email protected]

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mix-magazine/260603860715

Helping your business make the right colour choices...

www.globalcolor.co.uk

DETROIT SPECIAL

Carbon-fibre-reinforced polymer has long been seen as the new wonder-material. Light and incredibly strong, it’s ideally suited for precisely satisfying the requirements of

varied structural rigidity throughout a single panel or member - in a nutshell. Widely adopted in aerospace, military, Formula One, low-volume supercars, wind turbines and the sports and recreational industries, we are now on the verge of seeing CF filtering through to higher production, lower cost cars. But what about its suitability for mainstream automotive use and its green impact both today and in the future? What about the dark side of the dark stuff?

The automotive industry today is suffering from burgeoning weight. Power steering, air conditioning, ABS, powered windows, mirrors, sunroof, locks and seats as well as numerous airbags and additional safety devices are all expected – whether we need them or not – and increased crash protection consequently balloons weight further. CF offers an excellent solution to weight reduction. Using a CF chassis alone can reduce weight by around 12.5%, and with the addition of CF panels replacing pressed steel it’s possible to trim over 300kg from the total weight of a car. The end result is a 15-20% saving in fuel consumption – something that’s hard not to get excited about.Aside from its low weight, high tensile strength, excellent resistance

Next generation supercars such as Ferrari’s hybrid Enzo will make extensive use of carbon fibre

Five times the strength of steelbut a third of the weight.

So what are we waiting for?

THE CARBON PARADOX

Words: Adam Jefferson

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CARBON PARADOXto fatigue, ability to be moulded into complex shapes and its high modulus (resistance to stretching), CF is also particularly suitable in high temperature and high damping applications as well as those requiring chemical inertness. You don’t have to think about rust, for example, and compared to steel it can be as much as five times as strong, twice as stiff and a third of the weight. These fundamental benefits of carbon fibre soon add up; it is impossible to discount the oil-based material from the world’s manufacturing future.

Current drawbacks are, however, quite severe. And for the most part are the result of under-development due to its relative youth and niche usage. Compared with steel and aluminium, production is slow,

requiring huge amounts of energy, and costs and wastage are high. The component sections of each fabricated part are cut from a roll of fibre, and even with computerised optimisation of the most economical layout wastage of around 30% can be expected: these offcuts are in fact the largest source

of CF waste. Following production, wastage due to imperfections is typically 6% compared to a figure many thousand times smaller with steel or aluminium.

Conversely, costs can be 10 times as much when compared to pressed steel and are currently dependent on the price of oil, which increases as night follows day.

McLaren, again building road cars alongside the fastest Formula One cars on the grid, identify one of their major issues as supply chain problems, which can occur if there is a sudden demand for CF in large aerospace projects, although recently these have seen a decline. Furthermore, certain materials (for example pre-preg matting) have a limited shelf-life. CF is unstable when crashed and unlike metal cannot be pulled back into shape. Finally due to the nature of composites, CF is extremely difficult to separate and is neither biodegradable nor photodegradable. The

CF is extremely difficult to separate and is neither

biodegradable nor photodegradable

Mercedes’ forthcoming SLS Electric Drive makes use of a carbon fibre monocoque and aluminium for the body and chassis. Buyers will have to wait until later this year to part with €416,500

DETROIT SPECIAL

European End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV) Directive requires that 95% of each vehicle manufactured from January 2015 must be reused or recovered. Japan also has a 95% rate fixed for 2015, with China in 2017 and the US likely to follow suit at some point before 2020. How does CF compare with steel or aluminium in terms of environmental impact throughout the lifetime of a vehicle? It’s complex and depends on numerous factors, but right now the energy, costs and time of CF production far outweigh those of steel: Toyota recently stated that CF production creates more CO2 per gram than any other automotive material. Despite the current drawbacks, automotive manufacturing is expected to account for up to 10% of total CF consumption by 2015,

and automakers at all levels in the industry are experimenting. Most mainstream manufacturers are investing strongly, the leader presently being BMW with their new BMWi sub-brand - formed to handle BMW's electric car and mobility service offerings. The i Concepts focus on the cradle-to-cradle lifecycle of the vehicles and solutions that are based on intensive research in megacities around the world.

The cars will introduce the LifeDrive concept: two separate modules comprising the passenger cell (‘Life’) and beneath it a flat aluminium rolling-chassis containing the batteries, running gear and providing impact absorption (‘Drive’). This is an entirely new architecture which opens up an enormous amount of flexibility in terms of

both build and design. BMW are investing strongly in the new brand, upgrading their production facilities throughout Germany and more significantly, in conjunction with SGL Group – one of the largest carbon-based manufacturers, are building a CF manufacturing plant in Moses Lake, Washington. The initial phase alone will cost US$100 million. Ford are also investing strongly in CF and have recently demonstrated a prototype CF bonnet which could be produced quickly enough to join existing Focus production lines. The bonnet is constructed using a refined gap-impregnation process where resin is introduced to pre-formed carbon fibre textile. It also performs well in pedestrian crash tests due to a construction of a foam core sandwiched between two layers of CF,

CARBON PARADOX

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although Ford have made it clear that this component will not reach production in the near future. Meanwhile Ferrari CEO Amedeo Felisa has stated that Ferrari have chosen aluminium alloy in favour of CF, but has suggested that CF will meet their production requirements by 2020.

Riversimple, an innovative British hydrogen car company is currently developing an open-source hydrogen fuel cell car, and CF is the obvious choice for chassis and body manufacture. They will be turning the conventional sales model on its head by making the car available on a lease-only basis. Instead of producing cars with ‘built-in obsolescence’, Riversimple cars will be designed and made to last as long as possible, with a cradle-to-cradle lifecycle key in the production. In this way, Riversimple will be able to either reuse or recycle the cars/components in-house, massively reducing the environmental impact of the vehicles both throughout, and at the end of, their life. This fits well with the issue that even though CF itself is extremely durable, other major components have a shorter life and can render the remainder of the vehicle redundant.One of the chief arguments for CF is that steel is likely to become less cost efficient over the coming years due to increasing European Union taxes on vehicle emissions. Currently manufacturers that exceed targets pay a penalty for each car registered, amounting to €5 for the first g/km of CO2 over the limit, €15 for the second g/

km, €25 for the third, and €95 for each subsequent gram. It soon adds up, and from 2019 the fine will rise to €95 from the first gram. Conversly, the price of composites fabrication is constantly falling and annual growth in the automotive sector is around 10%, yielding a 10% annual reduction in process cost due to increased capacity and volumes. CF technology is constantly advancing and although current processes are largely dependent on the oil industry, there are new organic materials in the wings such as curran (based on carrot fibre) and lignin (also a renewable organic material). These could be up to 25% less expensive than current petroleum-based fibres.

The most significant problem today with recycling CF is that the product is more expensive than new material and often inferior. The fibres are already shorter due to breakage caused by high moulding pressures and recycling processes can further damage them. Together with their increased weakness, they are usually only suitable for physically smaller applications. This can often be handled by ‘closing the loop’ where manufacturers reuse the recycled material in-house. For example, a redundant bonnet could be used as source material for interior trim panels. A further issue is that the feedstock received by recyclers is mixed, of massively variable unknown quality and often contaminated which complicates the process further.There is no doubt whatsoever that CF is going to penetrate the automotive mass-

market at some point between 2015 and 2030. BMW’s considerable investment is an early indicator, and as take-up increases, costs will fall and adoption will rise exponentially. Current technology is far from viable in terms of mass-market production processes, time constraints and wastage, and recycling is currently a concern, but following Riversimple’s model of reuseable cars, perhaps a perception shift will lead in part to the acceptance of reuse rather than recycling. This, however, is likely to be a longer-term proposition and will become less of a requirement in the shorter-term as soon as viable mass-market bio-based resins and fibres reach production. Once the price of CF has fallen to a critical point, the cost of manufacturing could be cut by as much as 80% due to substantially reduced tooling and simplified assembly and joining. The ever more stringent emissions regulations will also force manufacturers to invest in weight-saving measures.

As with any new technology, take-up begins slowly and doubts threaten to undermine success, but with CF once the drawbacks are sufficiently mitigated (and they will be) we will see an exciting and sustainable leap forward in automotive construction. It is not unreasonable to imagine by 2030 fully degradable and recyclable materials which use significantly less energy to produce and are truly viable replacements for steel and aluminium.Below: Lexus developed an extensive in-house carbon fibre loom for the LFA supercar, of which this is just a small part.

DETROIT SPECIAL

DRIVENDevelopments in technology, new manufacturing processes, avant-garde design

strategy – they’re all exciting, and reasons why we love this industry, but if there’s one thing which we love more than anything else, it’s shiny new cars.

Whilst you can get your smartphone out and follow the QR code below for an extensive collection of road tests and design reviews, we’ve selected four of the most interesting cars we’ve laid our hands on over the last few months for you to read about here. Each car brings a different philosophy to the table, whether it’s BMW’s combination of power, luxury and economy, or SEAT’s latest (and greatest) attempt at making a Lamborghini for those who don’t have £250,000 burning a hole in their Swiss bank account. Furthermore, each photograph aims to capture the car’s unique character, from the new Mercedes A-Class’ larger-than-life aggression to the Subaru’s vivacious yet responsible attitude to driving.

To read about the eccentric MINI Cooper SD Roadster and

more cars we've tested,follow this QR code

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In only its fourth edition in as many decades, the new Range Rover is unquestionably a product of its time.

The new Range Rover 3.0 TDV6 sheds up to 420kg (350kg for other versions) in bodyweight thanks to a new, lighter 3.0-litre V6 engine and looks much leaner, too, due to some absolutely top class design (naysayers may even have to find a new nickname for the infamous Chelsea Tractors). If you can wait long enough you will even be able to compete with the best in class CO2 emitters towards the end of 2013, when the hybrid version is released. Statistically, at least, this British cultural leviathan will attempt to emit a mere 169g/km of CO2. In the meantime, I got behind the wheel of the most efficient model in the range (for now) for a befittingly British all-weather all-terrain first drive at the UK launch.

There is a lot of design to soak up in the new Range Rover. Actually it’s the first thing that hits you. The design is so vastly different, and evident, in its refinement that you almost want to visually dissect the car instead of being able to appreciate it in its entirety. The Range Rover’s package has always been defined from the front, side, and rear because of its boxy nature. Now, the new design wants to break away from this standard by attempting to wrap light graphics around the body and add curves to traditionally linear areas of the surfaces to create a more complex, or maybe decorative, form. These restrained transitions are ultimately overshadowed by the striking shark-like profile. It is here we find the elegant visual lines that have been used to disguise, and also the new volumes that tailor the outgoing model’s utilitarian box figure into a more slender celeb lifestyle icon.

By disguise and tailoring I mean that, much like a well-designed suit or dress, the designers have used the car’s fabric and lines favourably to reduce volumes and proportions to the max. Take, for example, the black section that runs the whole length of the lower body, it visually reduces the body section by 5- 8cm. Yeah, this is an old-school trick but consider then the satin aluminium blade that starts at the front door (with a curve - gasp!) and follows to the back of the vehicle as another

visual separator of mass and material, and a psychological reminder that this car has a special aluminium ‘lightweight’ skeleton. As for the vertical gills, they no longer have a function on this ‘contemporary’ Range Rover yet are there to remind us and connect your mind to what came before, to heritage, which is a quintessential part of any Land Rover experience. Finally, I would add the floating roof and the glossy black flush finish of the glasshouse as elements that really seal the horizontal design weight loss execution. Truly refined.

The weight loss is of course not just skin deep. Land Rover, as we have mentioned in other stories, have embraced sustainability in a truly holistic way. As much as that sounds like a cliché you will be hard pressed to find another company that through and through consider every millimetre of material and manufacturing process with such due diligence; its not just a numbers game to them. It would be so easy to dismiss the new Range Rover as another vain luxury car if it were not, like all of their other new cars, designed with a fully green life-cycle in mind. The big PR headliner about the new Range Rover is the aluminium body that radically reduces the vehicle’s weight up to 350kg, but add to that the little known fact that up to 75% of that is sourced from recycled aluminium content including content from Land Rover’s own closed loop recycling of waste from the manufacturing process, then the plot thickens. Bridge of Weir’s low carbon leather is used throughout the vehicle as well as sustainably sourced natural wood veneers for the interior and steering wheel. I can’t honestly report I have come across this same level of overall commitment from any other major car company to date.

The lightening of heart and of mind is also evident in the new Range Rover’s interior. Everywhere you look you can find details of masterful craft and finish, with double stitching throughout that has been designed by the team as well as the needles made for purpose. Lovely wood veneer lacquered to an immaculate finish, and colour palettes that are a quiet revolution in themselves. You won’t find luxury redefined with such modern flair that’s firmly in touch with its customer’s desires elsewhere - there is definitely an interior for every highflying

client that could land at their doors.

The car is so automated that from a driver’s perspective it may no longer be an interesting proposition. Don’t get me wrong - the car can handle everything you can throw at it - but I don’t know what to throw at it as that visual level of interaction has been removed. Without guidance, I mean, who actually reads the instruction manual these days? I wouldn’t have spent ages finding the functions of the 50% of the buttons (don’t try this while driving!) that have been removed for design purity and simplicity to a more digital level. Even the IP is digital, I like it, but car purists of yore don’t appreciate it very much. As it turns out, the visual pollution of buttons has been replaced by the digital confusion in the user interface area.

And that brings me to what struck me the most about the new Range Rover. Yes, it is easier to handle thanks to a lighter body, four-corner air suspension, and adaptive dynamics but I think the most dramatic shift is from a once utilitarian machine to the most desirable accessory in the world. Has this car become such an icon of über-luxury that it forgets to be what it is meant to be? A car. So much attention has gone into designing details that what is the feat of engineering that lies beneath this veil of elegance is overshadowed and ultimately underutilized.

I wonder then if this new Range Rover has lost some of its heritage in terms of function and purposefulness, and is a victim of its own celebrity status and become less of a car and more of an accessory. Driving one certainly felt that way, when someone actually has to point out to you (because the car is so easy to use) that should you be so inclined there are paddle gears subtly placed behind the steering wheel for a more dynamic and actually efficient driving experience then it makes you wonder who will be driving this car more - the yummy mummies or car enthusiasts.

Rolls Royce on stilts, 400kg lighter

GCD:

Has lost some of the LR heritage

DETROIT SPECIAL

The weight loss is not just skin deep. Land Rover have embraced sustainability in a truly holistic way

RANGE ROVER DRIVENWords: Hannah Macmurray

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DRIVEN

First Drive/November 2012/London, UK

Put your personal prejudices aside for a moment and you cannot deny the previous E63 6 Series its courage, or its

eccentricity, for that matter. The car’s designer Chris Bangle was and is nothing if not defiant, and since his departure the latest 6 Series, penned under the supervision of his successor Adrian van

Hooydonk, has been made to walk the aesthetic straight and narrow. No bad thing, evidenced here with the popular 640d.On approach, two aspects of the F12 6 Series Gran Coupé catch the eye: the tapered snout, afforded by the length of the car’s diving-board bonnet, and the mighty bone line that tears, arrow-straight, from the rear

BMW 640d

DETROIT SPECIAL

lamps forward. Both emphasize the 6 Series’ length, and both are tricks. The 6 Series is shorter than a 5 Series with a wheelbase just four centimeters longer than a 3 Series, although you’d never know it unless the three were parked side by side. The result is that the 6 Series has a surplus of that most crucial of gran turismo car design traits: perceived lengthiness on a locomotive scale and with it elegance. The 6 Series isn’t by any stretch of the

imagination a small car, though; just consider that the double-spoke M-Sport alloys this particular car is shod with, which look so at home, are a full twenty inches in diameter. There’s also reasonable space for adults in the back, the 6 Series being a classic 2+2, although stepinside and you could argue that it’s even a 3+1.I say 3+1 because the cabin is entirely focused on the driver – a BMW trait, no doubt – but taken to the new…

Combination of power and economy

GCD:

Misses the bigger picture. The i8 won’t

Words: Richard Lane Photo: Olgun Kordal

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DRIVEN

SEAT LEONFirst Drive/November 2012/Malaga, Spain

Drive the SEAT Leon in Spain and you’ll soon find out that the most rebellious of VAG’s offspring is on to rather a good thing. SEATs, of course, are ubiquitous on the Iberian Peninsular - the Leon in particular - although most examples are tired old dust magnets that typify the utilitarian mindset of European motorists.

This is a new SEAT, though, and it’s different from the rest.It’s shorter, with smaller overhangs; it’s wider, with a tarmac-

hugging front grille; and it possesses angles and general obliquity normally the reserve of machines altogether more exotic. The Emoción Red car we drove dizzyingly high into the Andalusian hills above Malaga drew stares and smiles from the widest of demographics in the way that a VW Golf could only dream of, and on first impression you can see why. SEAT have perhaps succeeded in building the people’s Lamborghini.

So does it look as good as it does in photos? Yes, and then some. The Spanish maker’s Design Center in Martorell has been threatening to design a car of truly desirable aesthetic for quite a while - 2008’s Bocanegra Concept a particularly striking augury– and the new Leon is it. More compact and focused than the outgoing model, it also sheds the previous car’s curves in favour of crystal-cut creases and a calculated stance.

With wheels set deep into the corners, the Leon’s shallow front graphic – with LED headlights and quadrilateral grille sitting in the same narrow band – sets the tone for the entire design. Tony Gallardo, the man responsible for the car’s blade-like light signatures, used the words ‘tension’ and ‘intension’ to describe the Leon’s appearance and attitude. Intent indeed.

And the Lamborghini reference isn’t as wide of the mark as you might think. Luc Donckerwolke, who this year departed SEAT to lead Bentley’s design teams, is largely credited with laying the foundations for the Leon’s design and is also a former employee of the forthright Italian supercar maker. The Diablo, Murciélago and Gallardo were all built under his direction, and the Leon emanates the same dynamic and self-assured character as the red-blooded racers.

The full-LED headlights, which represent a first in this segment, are the real talking point as they lift an already striking design to new heights and instantly draw the eye. SEAT worked hard to give these LEDs the appropriate ‘temperature’ – aiming to match natural daylight as closely as possible – and they’re certainly easier on the eye than similar but blinding efforts by Audi and Porsche. SEAT can fit LED taillights, too, that are as crisp and elegant as the headlights are arresting, although this is an optional extra on less expensive models. From the driver’s seat, too, there are small, seemingly inconsequential details that make the Leon a bit special and glamorous…

DETROIT SPECIAL

The complete package - a real Golf rival

GCD:

We’ll have to wait for 90g/km CO2 model


36

DRIVEN


First Drive/November 2012/ Yorkshire, UK

This is the new 2013 Mercedes A-Class, and the low silhouette and expressive

coachwork should tell you that it’s a radically different machine from its predecessor. Indeed, the sheer excitement generated by its Geneva Motor Show launch earlier this year the original could

match only by scandalously failing the ‘elk’ test over a decade ago.Seeing the A-Class in the metal for the first time, particularly this AMG Sport model in eye-catching ‘South Sea Blue’, is a real feast for the eyes. The unapologetically sporting stance, its penetrative LED light signature, the muscular sculpted flanks - it’s almost

Radical design is both new and exciting

GCD:

Engines need to be more efficient

MERCEDES A-CLASS

DETROIT SPECIAL

too much, almost a sensory overload, but witnessed from the front three-quarter the A-Class projects a focus of intent as yet unmatched by anything that bears comparison. Volkswagen’s razor-sharp new Golf wears creases and lines that could almost cut you from merely looking at them, but the A-Class almost wants to burst out of its metal panels, so satiated is it with energy and persona. It will be too much for some, but these are

early days for Mercedes’ newfound and more organic design language and, as first attempts go, the A-Class undoubtedly puts its best foot forward.There are a number of progressively efficient debutant engines for the new A-Class (including the 98g/km CO2 180 CDI), but the real headlines will predictably be saved for the car’s exterior aesthetic – something that designer Mark Fetherstone deserves credit for not…

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DRIVEN

First Drive/December 2012/London, UK

There’s a horrible and rampant school of thought that enjoyment and environmental awareness are mutually

exclusive ideals. And whilst Peugeot’s iOn is as likely to send shivers down your spine as a Tesla Model S is yield the crude and, let’s be honest, quite arousing timbre of a Mezger f lat-six idling, those

who have driven the aforementioned Tesla’s little brother with any sort of commitment will know how exhilarating the ‘green’ experience can actually be. Exhilarating enough to turn your complexion green.Now I’m not going to pretend that the Subaru BRZ is the saviour of the planet – that would be absurd - and a car of its

SUBARU BRZ

DETROIT SPECIAL

old-school ilk is a rare sight on these pages, but the philosophy that has precipitated its existence at all is a sizeable leap in the right direction. The BRZ is car making devolved and is all the better for it.Devolution is a theme that’s slowly becoming more prevalent in design. It’s certainly more common in aesthetic design – interior and exterior styling, things we see and touch – but it’s a strategy that can also be

applied to complex machinery. The Subaru BRZ, and its development sibling the Toyota GT86, are cases in point. On the subject of this partnership, it’s not unusual for cars to be co-developed, but the romance between the two Japanese makers has paid dividends, and whilst Toyota’s ED2 studio in southern France is to thank for the waspish design, Subaru has developed and set up the car’s mechanicals at home…

Almost green by accident. Huge fun

GCD:

Slightly pinched design is unresolved


DETROIT SPECIAL

DETROIT PREVIEWRunning strong after its centenary in 2007,

the North American International Motor Show continues to bring industry-changing

debuts and exciting concept creations. Last year saw Lexus’ razor-sharp LF-LC concept as well as Ford’s striking Evos, which was a sign of things to come from a brand that has reignited its design fire.2013’s Detroit show is shaping up to be another success, and although we won’t see Ferrari’s hybrid Enzo replacement, BMW and Mercedes are both bringing production-intent concepts to the show and the Japanese brands are pushing ahead production debuts from the likes of Infiniti, Honda and Lexus, amongst others.Overleaf are some of the most anticipated reveals for this year’s show that will push green drivetrain technology and the design philosophy further forward than ever before.

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V ia Motors specialise in giving people what they want in an environmentally friendly package. If you go onto the Via Motors website for example, you can preorder a 402bhp

range-extender truck capable of 40 miles zero emissions driving with a deposit of $1000. Detroit will see Via debut three new vehicles – a high-performance 4WD pick-up capable of producing 800bhp, a luxury 4WD SUV, and a twelve-seater van designed with shuttle routes in mind. By electrifying top-selling vehicles, Via Motors aim to reduce emissions to benefit the communities in which the vehicles work. Furthermore, in the event of an emergency, the electric generator can be used to power an entire household. Whilst it’s hard not to associate huge trucks with five-litre V8 engines (and they’re certainly not lightweight at over 5,000 lbs), think of these vehicles as super-sized Chevy Volts.

Detroit will see the world debut for Cadillac’s ELR luxury range-extender. GM have come good on their promise of production in 2013 following the Converj concept,

which was unveiled at this show in 2009 and accurately previewed the ELR. The ELR is GM’s crucial second album in the range-extender category and is anticipated to use the same technology as the Chevrolet Volt, although the packaging will be more opulent and true to Cadillac’s current design language. Sharing tech with the Volt means an electric-only range of around 40 miles, although this could be extended to more than 50, and an overall range of over 300 miles with the help of the onboard four-cylinder petrol engine generator. A total investment of $561 million proves GM’s commitment to this kind of vehicle, although success is never guaranteed in the electric vehicle market. Striking looks will certainly help, however..

Designed to exhibit an interplay between convex and concave surfaces, the CLA – previewed by the Concept Style Coupé at last year’s Tokyo motor show - is set to

polarise opinion. Whether the aggressive yet organic lines appeal to you or not, though, there’s no doubting that the CLA is a statement of intent. The front graphic borrows heavily from the latest A-Class, a car that had over 70,000 pre-orders, suggesting that Gorden Wagener and his team know exactly what they are doing, whilst the cars profile matches the brief for it to sit just below the C-Class in Mercedes’ now extensive range. The CLA represents the culmination of an adventurous design strategy that has roots in the F700 diesel hybrid concept revealed at the 2008 Frankfurt motor show, and shows no sign of slowing down. However, there’s no word of an electric CLA yet.

VIA MOTORS’ TRIO

MERCEDES CLA

CADILLAC ELR

DETROIT SPECIAL

Hyundai will build on the svelte, ‘Fluidic Sculpture’, lines of the I-oniq SUV concept unveiled at last year’s Geneva motor show with this: a four door coupé designed in the

same mould as Mercedes’ successful CLS and, latterly, BMW’s 6-Series Gran Coupé. Creatively dubbed HCD-14, Hyundai describe the car as a “glimpse into future Hyundai premium vehicle design, advanced 3-D gesture-based technology controls, and spirited driving dynamics”. Head- and rear lamps are connected with a strong but supple bone line, whilst the real contour occurs in a secondary, softer feature line that runs just below. An unusually high belt line which gives the car an athletic, sporty character, both from the outside and, due to a smaller DLO, from a passenger’s perspective as well. Whether it will share the three-cylinder, electric-hybrid drivetrain found in the I-oniq remains to be seen.

Following in the footsteps of the dihedral hydrogen-fuelled TeRRA SUV concept at Paris, and more recently the EXTREM concept revealed at Sao Paulo, the Resonance

is the latest in string of Nissan crossover concepts. From this image, however, the Resonance seems to be the most mature and resolved design yet from Shiro Nakamura and his team, with a radically kinked belt line that’s integrated with a rear LED light graphic that quickly draws the eye. There’s a good chance that the Resonance will offer a preview for a Murano successor, as the current model has already enjoyed a four-year production run. In typical concept fashion the car does without door handles and wing mirrors – expect large mirrors and door handles that are anything but invisible on a production version. Not forgetting a huge B-pillar as well, naturally.

Mercedes won’t have the rakish coupé show to themselves, as BMW will introduce an all-new car in their lineup – the 4 Series. Van Hooydonk originally designed this to

be the 3 Series coupé, but the change to ‘4’ came later. Although a concept, it looks nearly production ready and pleasingly like a junior 6 Series. Pioneers of the modern coupé form, BMW seems to have nailed it here, with a wheelbase that’s 2 inches longer than the previous 3 Series coupé. The 4 Series is also noticeably lower and wider than its forebear. Strong facial features and a supple shoulder line give the 4 Series a composed and focused stance that’s aided by a softly sloping roofline. The 4 Series will go on sale with the traditional range of BMW engines, including the company’s brilliant two-litre diesel powerplant, but it’s easy to ponder what a car this would be with the i8’s hybrid drivetrain.

HYUNDAI HCD-14

NISSAN RESONANCE

BMW 4 SERIES COUPÉ

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CDR INSIGHT

Designing for export

In small car segments downsizing is the current trend du jour, but in their latest generations, cars like the Range Rover, Maserati Quattroporte and Porsche 911 are the largest they’ve ever been.

Their original designs were the result of quite locally specific requirements. Seeing over the hedgerows of an English country lane, taking all the family to the Riviera, enjoying the Black Forest’s switchbacks. But their purposes have changed. Bought in greater numbers by customers in faraway markets, they are now explicitly designing for export.

Marginally larger than the car that went before, the new Range Rover’s growth expressly benefits rear seat space. Thank the growing chauffeur market and customers in China and India, who increasingly want to drive themselves but still require a large rear seat space to show respect and provide comfort to their clients, family and friends who will ride in the rear.

Much the same is true of the new Maserati Quattroporte, whose wheelbase grows substantially over the previous version. Again, rear seat passengers benefit, and as Fiat group seeks to grow Maserati’s operation, it knows the key markets to do this in will be those where rear seat space is prioritised and valued.

The new Porsche 911 has grown into more of a full GT – one that arguably now looks and feels more at home on California’s wide boulevards than it does in Stuttgart’s city centre.

The not-so-mini Mini Countryman has shown the breadth of the Mini brand. But the coupe-cum-crossover Paceman, derived from its SUV sister, continues that car’s trend in feeling like a car with an entirely different remit to Issigonis’s original, and the tight British city streets its reputation was built in.

CDR INSIGHT - QUARTER ONE 2013

DETROIT SPECIAL

Matte mash-ups

Hyundai’s Veloster C3 Rolltop concept is perhaps the most sophisticated approach yet. With its ‘fixie’ bike stacked into the rear load bay, the Veloster mixes a mint green rear wheel to key with the bike, recycled skateboard on the trunk floor, and matte-finish front wheel, grille, mirror housing and roof decals for what we’d term a ‘fixie mash-up’ look.

The latest models feature matte finishes on specifically chosen panels, often breaking up the continuous, singular paint colour finish of the car. Conceptually, we’ve seen such an idea before - in the form of the somewhat unpopular Polo Harlequin. The latest application of mattes is rather more sophisticated, however.

Tuning culture continues to wield an influence on mainstream automotive design, illustrated by the latest trend for matte paint mash-ups. Matte finishes hark back to the 1920s hot-rod culture and have more recently become a

premium OEM paint option – applied at the factory rather than after-market.The latest series of vehicles, however, to feature matte paint finishes do so in unusual, novel and altogether more subtle ways.

The Renault D-Cross (a concept for a South American market B-segment SUV) shares many of its panels with the Dacia Duster. However, the use of a matte black wrap around, aft of the C-pillar, has the effect of visually separating the two cars and gives the D-Cross a personality of its own - one that feels well suited to a utilitarian SUV.

The latest derivative of Chevrolet’s Camaro, the 1LE, tops the range in terms of performance and is differentiated from lesser models in the range by its matte black bonnet. Historically the matte black bonnet has been a muscle-car feature, but this is the first time it’s featured as a factory option on the latest generation Camaro.

Design yields trends which in turn dictate design. Here is an insight into the latest trends from the team at Car Design Research

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CDR INSIGHT

Have you noticed? Stuff that caught our eye this month

CDR associate and independent designer, Satoshi Wada, joins an illustrious cast of car designers who have turned their hands to horology, with this design for Issey Miyake.

Product designers Bertille & Mathieu have recently presented “VentrU” - a cast iron radiator with a hollow centre for warming towels and accessories.

Google may have been using their Priuses for their own self-driving car research, but it seems Toyota’s been working on the technology themselves. At this week’s CES in Las Vegas, Toyota unveiled a Lexus that can drive itself and looks set to be joined by Audi as the race to lead in autonomous vehicles begins in earnest.

Jose Carlos Cruz Arquitecto’s pharmacy in Villa Real, Portugal, uses large lighting graphics at night, to illuminate the facade, making the building’s purpose completely unmistakable.

Car Design Research is a unique consultancy providing strategic support, trend analysis and consumer insight in the automotive sector. E-mail us: [email protected] more at www.cardesignresearch.com

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UP TO 12hUP TO 265mi

UP TO 118MPGe

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PLUG-IN HYBRID+

$96.8

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45$1,

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*Statistics from the US Department of Energy correct in December 2012

EFFICIENT ENERGY, EFFICIENT CARSWith so many natural resources, where does the USA get its energy from and which cars use it most efficiently

DETROIT SPECIAL

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50

Detroit, affectionately known as the Motor City and home to the US ‘Big Three’, has not fostered

a reputation for creating environmentally efficient vehicles. Even after the oil crisis of 1973 it continued to focus on the big and brawny – famous for muscle cars and pickup trucks that make up the bulk of car ownership in the US. The inaugural Detroit auto show was a

backyard gathering in a local beer garden in 1907, with 17 exhibitors showing a grand total of 33 cars. Since then the show has blossomed to become an important event on the international circuit, having been baptised the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in 1989 – the same year Toyota and Nissan decided to launch their luxury brands, Lexus and Infiniti, on the very doorstep of

their would-be rivals. As the times change, and efficiency becomes increasingly paramount, there has been some indication of change on the part of domestic automakers. Here are a few of the greenest production and concept vehicle highlights that have graced the Detroit show floor in the last decade…

In 2002, when Cadillac displayed the V12-powered Cien to commemorate its 100th anniversary, GM also showcased the innovative Autonomy concept, the first vehicle designed around a fuel cell propulsion system. It was also the first to combine fuel cells with drive-by-wire technology, liberating space for designers.

2003 Ford Model U concept This concept was the first domestic vehicle to take sustainability on board. Designed by Laurens van den Acker (now head of design at Renault), the Model U was powered by a hydrogen-fuelled four-cylinder engine mated to a hybrid-electric drivetrain and featured bio-based materials in its construction.

2004 Ford Mustang Far from being green, Ford revealed a notable retro-inspired design at the 2004 Detroit show: the production reinterpretation of the classic 1967 Mustang. Shown in concept form a year earlier, the Mustang was the first production ‘retro’ design from a domestic manufacturer and, following the overwhelming success of the BMW-built Mini, a precursor to the retro design wave.

ECO-DESIGN AT DETROIT

Words: Eric Gallina

DETROIT SPECIAL

In 2008, Chrysler stepped up to the plate with three alternatively propelled concepts occupying space in different segments: the fuel cell hybrid Chrysler ecoVoyager, electric Dodge Zeo and hybrid Jeep Renegade. This year also marked the unveiling of Cadillac’s Provoq concept sourcing power from GM’s hydrogen fuel-cell propulsion system.The Karma, a sleek range-extended hybrid plug-in sedan from new American car company Fisker, made its production debut at the 2009 Detroit show, following on from its production debut the previous year. The Karma S (Sunset) convertible concept also graced the Fisker stand, Chrysler

showed a 200EV concept and the Cadillac Converj, built on the Chevrolet Volt platform, was easily the star of the show.Over the next few years, foreign manufacturers continued to take more of the spotlight. Volkswagen’s Bluesport concept made its debut in Detroit in 2009, as did the Mercedes Concept BlueZero, the Toyota FT-EV concept and the redesigned Prius. In 2010 there were still more foreign green car debuts, such as the Audi E-tron, BMW ActiveE and the Toyota FT-CH concepts. The Big Three were seemingly still reeling from the unstable economy, but GM’s advanced design studio came through with

another brilliant concept. Wearing the GMC badge, the small Granite SUV was a full two feet shorter than the brand’s most compact production vehicle, hinting at potential things to come.Ford and Hyundai presented the standout concepts at the 2011 show, showing that the small SUV/crossover typology is alive and well. We expect it will continue to flourish. But in the last year we’ve also seen the Acura NSX concept and the Lexus LF-LC supercar concept steal the limelight. Could it be that, with alternative powertrains and at the hands of foreign automakers, Detroit is going back to its muscle car roots?

2005 GMC Graphyte Determined to change the public’s perception of their bread and butter products, GM used its truck brand, GMC, to present its vision towards a more efficient future. Designed at GM’s advanced design studio in Coventry, England, the Graphyte featured a two-mode hybrid system destined for production in the 2007 GMC Yukon and Chevrolet Tahoe SUVs.

2006 Ford ReflexIn the year that Walter de Silva showed off his retro-inspired Miura successor of the same name, Ford’s Freeman Thomas presented a minimalist small sports car concept powered by a frugal 1.4-litre four-cylinder diesel engine mated to two electric motors. The concept’s original design, topped off with roof-mounted solar panels, made a valiant attempt at balancing performance and efficiency.

2007 Chevrolet Volt concept While the Japanese carmakers have made more strides in promoting sustainable mobility than any other (Toyota launched the Prius, the world’s first hybrid vehicle, in Japan in 1997), GM took its time to bring its vision to fruition. The Chevrolet Volt, unveiled in concept form at the 2007 Detroit auto show, effectively became the first production plug-in electric vehicle from a domestic manufacturer when it went into production a year later.

Detroit used to be the home of muscle cars, things are-a-changin’and Eric Gallina looks back at six of the best concepts revealed at past NAIAS shows…

with a green twist

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Five Rally Fighters bask in the Arizona sunshine outside Local Motors’ first micro-factory

Big statistics are an accepted part of the car industry. Dismantle Tesla’s new sedan and you’ll find more than

7,000 battery cells, for example, and in 2011 over 4.2 million vehicles were built in South Korea – more than twice the number built in the US.

But consider this: there are around 30,000 component parts in a modern car, and in December last year General Motors had 788,194 unsold cars and trucks on its hands. That’s 236,458,200,000 headlights, inlet manifolds, bolts, radiators, sun visors and all manner of parts crafted and put together at great energy and expense that were and still are sitting on forecourts and in parking lots, doing very little. And that’s just one, albeit very prominent, automaker. That can’t be right.Unfortunately it is, but there’s an antidote in the form of Arizona-based Local Motors, who are bucking the trend by manufacturing low volume, made-by-demand cars born from the collective minds of thousands of designers, engineers, CAD modellers and fabricators. Local Motors is the world’s first open-source automaker, and CEO and ex-USMC man Jay Rodgers believes this is the way to give people the cars they actually want at less detriment to the environment.

“Today, if you have an idea for a car, you are so far away from getting that idea into

STRENGTHIN NUMBERS

Words: Richard Lane

Has it ever occured to you that,when buying a car,we don’t actually have much choice?

DETROIT SPECIAL

“Open-sourcing is the antithesis of the corporate attitude, and in the automotive arena it offers people the previously impossible shot of seeing their idea make it into a production car”

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an actual car it’s almost unfathomable,” he argues, adding that after building test systems that would be beyond the capital capabilities of almost all inventors, finding someone with the money and desire to buy the technology and take it forward would present an equal challenge.

“The odds are that at the end of their [an automaker’s] test and evaluation period they would return it to you and say ‘thank you but the efficiency gains are not great enough for us to invest in a plan where we would roll these out eight years from now’ … and you’d be out of business.” Brutal this scenario may be, but it’s also the status quo in an industry that’s systematically holding itself back, stifling ideas by hiring intelligent people into relentlessly intransigent positions – straightjackets – and expecting them to come up with rapid innovation across what has become an increasingly complex enterprise. Rodgers points out that the engineers working on Chevy’s range-extending Volt obviously ‘aren’t idiots’, so how did they manage to spend over a billion dollars in developing hardware that had already been done?

Crowd or open-sourcing is the antithesis of this corporate attitude, and in the automotive arena it offers people a previously impossible shot of seeing their idea make it into a production car. “We have

tried, and been very successful at, creating the first version of a platform where people with great ideas can discuss them without fear of being told ‘that will never become real’”, Rodgers proudly explains, and this approach is evidenced in Local Motors’ first car: the Paris-Dakar-esque Rally Fighter.Everything about the Rally Fighter – now eighteen months into production - is the result of a community that shares ideas in a virtual space known as ‘The Forge’ – Local Motor’s living room in more ways than one. It’s also a tangible example of Local Motors’ desire to devolve the needlessly complicated makeup of modern cars – it’s 40% lighter than anything else in its class and passes up innovation for innovation’s sake (the recent glut of fault-prone electronic parking brakes being a particularly irking illustration of the problems caused by incessant one-upmanship). Incremental innovation is the enemy.

As mentioned, the car’s design, its powertrain, and its dimensions, even the name ‘Rally Fighter’ – they’ve all been reached through community-wide discussion and that’s what makes this car, and any subsequent cars that Local Motor decide to build, so exciting. Each car is a product of a given community’s taste, and there’s nothing to say that had the Rally Fighter been built in one of Local Motors’ micro factories of the future – possibly in

the Middle East or Russia – it may well have turned out very differently as both regional aesthetic tastes and the needs of the community would be different. There’s clearly potential here, as Rally Fighters have found homes in Russia, Kazakhstan, Poland and the UAE, although most customers reside in the US. Rodgers hopes to see the business expand and with the goal of building niche cars in the environments where they will be used and appreciated (very different from shipping thousands of cars across the world as the major OEMs currently do) has identified seven desert regions around the world that Local Motors can pursue selling Rally Fighters.

So how do you go about getting your own Rally Fighter, or any car, for that matter, which has been dreamt up in the creative furnace of The Forge? The inspiration, or genesis, for a car usually comes from one of the community’s industrial designers. It’s not hard to imagine that there’s a plethora of exciting future projects that Rodgers and his colleagues have to choose from, either. Local Motors purposely avoided putting a price for the Rally Fighter online as it would encourage curious and potential buyers to call up and ask, and that initial contact is all-important. “When people find out who we are, they want to be part of it, especially when we take them out [in the Rally Fighter] over a

DETROIT SPECIAL

jump or something. Then we tell them that they’ll actually be building the car,” explains Rodgers in a fashion that has parted many a car-lover from the $75,000 it costs to own what can only be described as a cross-country weapon. Then the buyer spends between three and six eye-opening days at the factory and, under supervision, builds the guts of their own car, “like and adult Lego process.” Tempting? Not half.

Speaking to Rodgers shortly after his return from negotiating a new micro factory in the Middle East, he explained that “building micro factories around the world, to build low volumes, is very much part of our plan to change the ecosystem of specialty automotive.” The micro factories themselves, whilst quick and, at $300,000, relatively cheap to build, are surprisingly flexible and could potentially house ‘production lines’ for four vehicles simultaneously. This would, however, go against Rodger’s policy of only storing mechanical parts in the supply chain for one-and-a-half weeks and solely ordering what Local Motors can use. More vehicles mean a larger stockpile.

If things go to plan, however, there may well be a need to produce more than one vehicle at a given factory, as a region’s climate, economy and taste may facilitate more than one niche. For example, a city of 1.5-2 million people on the edge of a desert

may yield a market for not only a Rally Fighter-type vehicle for buyers to enjoy, but also a smaller, electric vehicle for urban environments. Electric vehicles are certainly on the radar for Local Motors, especially as early adopters of environmentally friendly cars not only want something more unique than a Prius, for example, but are often prepared to pay more for the privilege. This isn’t simply cynicism on Rodgers’ part, however, as he estimates that simply getting an electric motor system into a car would cost around $30,000, or twice that

of a similarly capable gas engine. Factor in the standard industry mark-up of around 200% and you’re looking at $60,000 before considering the rest of the car. Would people be prepared to pay? Yes, but possibly not enough people to make a profit, and Local Motors is ultimately a business.

“Right now the community is working on something called an ‘open tandem’ which is sort of a reincarnation of the Messerschmitt, so it’s an inline-seated vehicle to be made for under $10,000. It’s not an electric vehicle, but it’s a small-block, one-litre, super light, inexpensive vehicle for two people made for

highway driving,” says Rodgers, but there’s clearly a personal desire to build something electric that’s tailor-made, as this is the direction that we’re all steadily moving in.

The circumstances have to be right, though. “We want to sell them locally, we don’t ever want to pay for international marketing. It’s part of business plan that if you make a niche vehicle, don’t try and sell it to people who aren’t in the niche.” It all goes back to the idea that buyers should not have to compromise on the car they buy – currently buyers have a choice of cars that are adequate or even very good to everyone, but absolutely perfect for nobody.

Local Motors and the Rally Fighter raise the question about what exactly is sustainable motoring? Is it a Nissan Leaf, which although clean at of point use, has skeletons in its closet such as battery recycling, supply chain, an enormous inventory and extra tooling for complex servicing that soon becomes obsolete? Or does the future lie in low-volume, locally-sourced vehicles that are tailored to the users needs, challenge the culture of changing cars regularly, and are enthusiastically designed and built by the buyer?

In the end it comes down to what we want and what we need, and Local Motors seem to be offering both.

Each car is a product of a given community’s taste

56

OPINION

W e are led to believe that electric cars are an invention of modern times, a testament to Moore’s law

- which posits that the processing power of computers will double every two years - and therefore a sign of our inventiveness. The reality is that electric vehicles have very little to do with computers, and we haven’t progressed very far in their development during the past 100 years. Surprised? Before the internal combustion engine took hold, electric-powered vehicles were the ‘sports cars’ of their day - holding numerous speed and distance records - but that was before fuel became cheaper and more plentiful, while oil companies grew richer and more influential. The industry eventually stopped investing in their development and oil companies invested in EV-startups so they could ‘control’ the industrialisation of new technologies.

Step forward a couple of decades, and the energy crises of the 1970s and 80s brought about renewed interest in electric cars, with California leading the way in the 1990s. These cars did little, however, to change the market’s perception that electric vehicles were slow, lacked range and looked, well, boring.Late last year, BMW sent out a press release entitled “40 years of electric mobility at BMW Group”, as they prepare for the new BMW i3 launch late this year. They describe the i3 as the culmination of 40 years of development work, but look closely and you’ll notice that most of this development has been in battery technology and companies like BMW spent most of those years investing in hydrogen vehicles. Back in 1972, a converted

BMW 1602 needed 350kg of lead-acid starter batteries to achieve a range of 37 miles. Fifteen years later and a modified BMW 325iX was fitted with 265 kg of sodium-sulphur batteries, delivering 42% higher (continuous) power and 75% more capacity. Range was now up to 93 miles (in city traffic), but still woefully short of a combustion engine and considerably heavier. Four years on, again, and the purpose-built BMW E1 introduced sodium-nickel chloride batteries, weighed just 200kg and offered 88%

more power. Not exactly true to Moore’s Law, but a noticeable improvement nonetheless. Progress was being made.Development then ground to a halt for a second time, before being reignited in 2008 with the Lithium-ion powered MINI E. Very much the precursor for the soon-to-be-launched i3 Megacity car, range was 155 miles and it was powerful enough to lap the Nürburgring in under ten minutes. The batteries still weighed a not inconsiderable 260 kg, but they were compact enough to fit into a small car like the MINI and propel it from 0-62mph in 8.5 seconds – hot hatch pace. The i3 has reduced the powerplant’s size by a further 40 per cent, and will crack 62mph from rest in less than 8 seconds. It still relies on rechargeable lithium-ion cells for its batteries, though. Is this the kind of progress we’ve become accustomed to with computers and other consumer tech? Well, perhaps the first thing to understand is that this is about chemistry more than physics. EVs depend on batteries for the storage and release of energy, and the energy density of this medium is dictated by the choice of materials used. In recent years, the hype has focused on lithium-ion batteries, but old-school lead-acid batteries (as used to start our cars) haven’t disappeared and are regaining prominence with the latest fast charging lead-acid batteries. These lead-carbon based cells act more like super-capacitors and offer considerably longer cycle lives (the number of times a battery can be charged and discharged) than the latest lithium-ion batteries, but they are heavier and not really

BMW built three electric 1602 to chauffeur members of the Organising Committee at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. It’s doubtful that the cars’ passengers recognised the significance of their alotted ride.

ARE WE NEARLY THERE YET?Words: Steve Davies

If EV-tech had advanced at the same rate as computer-tech, we’d all be driving around silently by now. It’s still noisy.

DETROIT SPECIAL

The Mini E revived the industry drive for improved electric cars a little in 2008, but the real breakthroughs are still to be evidenced.

suited for use in passenger cars.On the other hand, lithium-ion batteries are only four or five times more energy-dense than the batteries made a century ago, and have failed to deliver the performance levels expected by consumers. Earlier this year, South Korean scientists claimed a hundred-fold increase in the charging time of lithium-ion batteries after their cathodes were carbonised, but this is an industry where hype arises on a daily basis and still needs to be proven in consumer trials. Even so, you’d think now would be a great time to be in the battery business, but with the recent collapse of A123 Systems (OEM supplier to Fisker, BMW, McLaren and General Motors) and Sony looking to offload its lithium-ion battery business, it is clearly not a market which favours new entrants. Samsung, Sony and Panasonic/Sanyo account for around 60% of global lithium-ion battery production, while battery makers in China and Korea are taking advantage of the incentives available in their domestic markets to eat into this share.Most of the recent progress in automotive

battery technology has arisen in the area of micro-hybrids (the technology behind those stop-start systems fitted to many new cars these days). These are forecasted to represent more than 30 per cent of the market by 2015 and have encouraged battery makers to improve the Dynamic Charge Acceptance (ability of the battery to recover during an engine off interval) performance of their products. This is a long way from delivering a pure-EV future, and given that micro-hybrid tech favours lead-acid batteries, it also goes in the opposite direction to that which the current EV movement would prefer us to take. Most makers are relying on a substantial reduction in the cost of batteries, but in such a mature industry there are few economies of scale available from bulk-buying raw materials or improving production processes. With material costs accounting for roughly 50% of battery production, the irony is that increasing demand may lead to increased scarcity of raw materials – and consequently an increase in prices. This is exactly the opposite of what the OEMs need to increase consumer adoption.

So where does this leave the consumer?

There remains considerable doubt over the future of pure-EV cars, with KPMG predicting hybrids as the better mid-term solution. Indeed, with the rate of innovation for lead-acid batteries exceeding that of lithium-ion and consumers’ proven appetite for enhanced petrol or diesel hybrids, the future seems more evolution than revolution - delivering more of what we know, with lower cost and less consequences to the environment. It’s a complex issue, with no ‘silver bullet’ solutions and a whole load of hype, but are we nearly there yet? I very much doubt we’ll ever achieve the vision touted by today’s politicians and environmental activists, but I suspect car makers will be resourceful enough to invent something even better. One thing that’s for certain though, the technology needed at the right price is not yet a reality, nor will it be unless we see a breakthrough in some good old-fashioned chemistry.

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OPINION

T he United States has at various times been at the forefront of bringing up the rear of the

movement towards greener forms of transportation. For every Chevrolet Volt there is a Cadillac Escalade, and for every Nissan Leaf there is an Infiniti QX56. The re-election of President Obama appears to signal a move once again towards the front, but a closer look paints a more complicated picture. As the country tries on one hand to move towards green transportation, consumers continue to demand less-green vehicles in numbers that manufacturers cannot ignore.

The end result is short-term business strategies intersecting with longer term governmental strategies and the fact that

consumer and business self-interest often outweigh that of a society in general. This leads to government policies that appear to meander from one extreme to the other.

The beginning of government involvement in fuel economy can be traced to the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973 and the US Government’s 1975 proactive decision to mandate improvements by way of CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy). While the average consumer could not possibly understand the structure of the regulations, the intent to improve fuel economy was obvious through elements like the clearly defined Gas Guzzler Tax. The Tax, which has applied to all passenger cars that failed to meet a minimum fuel economy rating, vilified high performance vehicles like the

Maserati Quattroporte. Critics argued however, that the standards were of limited value as they included a loophole for SUVs; SUVs were considered trucks that had much lower fuel economy requirements and were not subject to the Gas Guzzler Tax. Whether the subsequent increase in consumers purchasing SUVs had anything to do with the standards is unclear. What is clear is that once CAFE was implemented, fleet economy of new vehicles increased substantially, independently of the price of fuel.

In 1985 the first glimpse of an alternate personality emerged when the standards for passenger cars were rolled back to protect the nation’s two largest auto makers. This was followed soon after by a 21 year run

THE LOOPHOLE EXPRESSWords: Frank Schwarz

If you thought convincing the buying public to ‘ hug trees’ was hard, then consider persuading international companies to compromise on profit…

DETROIT SPECIAL

where no improvement of passenger car fuel economy was required, and actual fleet economy only increased marginally (1990-2010). Things moved back in a positive direction in 2009 when new requirements were implemented starting in 2011 and continuing in force until 2016. These new features were an attempt to close the SUV loophole by featuring a standard where the fuel economy improvements are required based on the size of the vehicle. But these rules have opened a new and different loophole “big enough to drive a truck through”. Since it is based on size and not weight, it gives an automaker the opportunity to make a vehicle larger if it cannot hit the required fuel economy target.

With the re-election of President Obama it appears that the positive trend will continue. Earlier this year, Obama’s administration brought new standards into law that mandate further improvements for the 2017-2025 model years. These new standards are set to improve fuel economy to more than 54 miles per gallon by 2025. As with past regulations they come with some new loopholes. One of the major points of

contention is the fact the entire regulation is open to review and adjustment if the agencies involved feel the technology is not readily available to meet the requirements. This mid-point review must be completed by April 1, 2018 and includes provisions for public comments and peer reviews.

Considering the number of the credits that are sprinkled throughout the new regulations, we will almost certainly see an improvement but not to the level of up to 5% annual improvements targeted. Credits can be earned starting immediately for things such as hybrid powertrains in pickups which can then be carried forward towards meeting future requirements. There will also be an “incentive multiplier for all electric vehicles (EVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV’s) and fuel cell vehicles (FCV’s)” that all but ensures the actual improvement will be less than planned. Finally, some of the credits don’t even have anything to do with fuel economy such as the one granted for implementing new air conditioning technology.

The new rules will definitely move the country towards greener transportation at a quicker pace than ever before. But as recent sales of full-electrics have demonstrated, consumer acceptance has lagged behind the goals and predictions of automakers and government officials alike. Recently Nissan admitted that they will not meet their 2012 sales target. In fact sales so far this year are more than 15% below the sales rate of 2011.

In the end the key element will be the commercial equation. How does the cost of technology compare to the cost of energy saved? Estimates vary for the additional cost to meet the requirements; the EPA suggests $1,800 per vehicle while the North. American Dealers Association (NADA) says the number is closer to $3,000. It doesn’t really matter which number is used, as it just changes the payback period based on fuel costs at the time. The real question is at what point do consumers decide that the economics of purchasing a new vehicle with improved fuel economy will outweigh the benefits of their current vehicle or a used one?

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J MAYSWords: Hannah Macmurray Photography: Gary Morrisroe

You could convincingly argue that this man is the most powerful man in car design worldwide, but trivial speculation doesn’t mean a thing to Ford’s chief designer. Transilience, however, does.

DETROIT SPECIAL

In preparing for our Detroit Special magazine we thought that it would be insightful to get in touch with J Mays, VP Design Director at Ford. While he wore the Audi legacy badge for a while after designing classics such as the Audi Avus Quattro concept car and VW’s revisit of the Beetle, it could be argued that he was typecast as a retro designer and has stayed off our radar for a while now.

However, since 2008, when the economic crisis hit global markets, Ford has been going through a massive business overhaul. Play forward to today and the company is in a very strong position worldwide to cater to savvy customers who expect uncompromising products at affordable prices with plenty of intelligent design. Ford can now deliver, and in no small part thanks to Mays. This puts him dead centre back in the spotlight.

I first met J Mays at the Tokyo Motor Show 1999; he had just been at Ford for 2 years and was on a mission to blast away the ‘fuddy-duddy’ design image that Ford had inherited. This blast came in the form of O-21-C, a concept car designed in collaboration with Marc Newson. It was, and arguably still is, naïve in the eyes of some automotive designers, yet it shifted people’s perceptions. This is what Mays does best - shifts the status quo.

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What makes good car design and why have you stayed with Ford whilst most designers are seduced by the next big thing?

Firstly, in the past two weeks I celebrated my 15th year at Ford, which means that officially I have now been longer at Ford than at Audi. It makes me feel both quite proud but also quite old. Within Ford I am positive that I am still thought of as the ‘new guy’, only after you are there for 25 years do they consider you an ‘old guy’.

And you think that Ford encourages trust?

Yes, I had a challenge to myself to change the brand and we are just now starting to get traction and do that. Not to talk about Audi, but when I was there it took 10 years to finally change the perception of design of the company and they have gone on over the past 25 years to be fantastic… not just because of design but also technology. I had said that when I came to Ford that it would take 10 years to move the needle in the eye of the customer. 2008 came, we still hadn’t done it, and I really started to wonder if it was going to happen or not. Then came the global financial crisis and just by complete serendipity we had organised ourselves for restructuring. We had gone out, taken the world’s largest ‘home improvement loan’, and restructured the company. When the financial crisis hit GM and Chrysler they weren’t quite so fortunate so they entered into bankruptcy. At the same time that all this was going on, Toyota and Honda were having a terrible time between recalls, tsunamis and earthquakes, and it wasn’t a great year for them. Everyone had what I like to call an ‘oh shit’ moment, cause they went ‘oh shit Ford actually builds really nice cars!’ And so for the last 2 or 3 years now we’ve really been looked at as a brand that’s on the march again and I would like to say that has all to do with design, but it doesn’t. It has something to do with design. As we brought better and better cars to the market, because we had a product development side that didn’t get interrupted, we’ve been able to bring a lot of fresh design to the market in the past 3 years. It also gave me a chance to hone the design team that I have around me, because I don’t do all of this - it’s the team that does it. We still have between 900 and 1100 staff on board inside the design organisation that covers 11 studios

around the world. It’s a big job and there are quite a lot of people that have to step up and deliver.

It’s important to have a vision for the future - of who leads the way. What do you think of that?

I think design is often the output of the culture from which it is created. If you go back to the 50’s and look at the crazy cars that were being designed then, they are out of the mind-set of post-war America, everything, at least in that country, was very optimistic - that’s why we go for these kind of crazy cars. And that was great, what was interesting about Marc’s take on the O-21-C was that it was not a particularly positive time but yet this car was still really optimistic. And then the counter to that would be the called the SYN US, which was this little tanky breeze truck of a box that was done right at the height of the George W Bush years, and it was quite negative, but it was an output of the culture that sort of surrounded it…and those become positive motivation, and at their worst they become a kind of a political statement. You have to be very careful what you are laying out there.

Maybe the digitalising of our world is the ‘non-existence’ of cars…

I think the stark reality, financially, over the last 3 or 4 years is that there has been a sharp reduction in concept cars because everyone is just concentrating on just surviving or pre-production cars coming to market. That’s where our focus has been because we didn’t want to show anything for the next few years that we were not going to take to production. I think that there is a credibility that comes with that.

You have spent a lot of time working in a global context but now local is the buzzword, local design. Are your design teams now focused on local design or are you good at being global? What is Ford design?

I think we are very good a being global. I have struggled for years to finally get my head around what Ford stood for and there are lots of companies that will tell you that their cars are fun to drive, but Fords are actually fun to drive. But more importantly people will say what is Ford design? And so you can point to Jaguar and say that’s British, or Land

Rover British, or Alfa Romeo Italian, or all the German manufacturers German, and it finally clicked with me that Ford does have an international design language and it is the input of a lot of designers that we have from around the world that happen to be based in some of these studios that I mentioned, but many of them are based in Dearborn. Not unlike America itself, Ford is a melting pot of an incredible influx of design talent working on design that is at once international but actually American. So the new Fusion has influence from Britain, from Germany, it has influence from Italy, Japan, but something about the car has an underlying American quality about it as well. I quite like that idea, it’s a melting pot - I like the alignment of Ford and the country, and the US as well.

And it’s no longer the rest of the ‘Big Three’ Ford are worrying about…

We haven’t thought about the other ‘two’ for quite a few years. The competition is Toyota, is VW - we don’t really think of them that way, we are not dismissing them, but that’s just not what we think of as our competition. The Focus has recently rekindled my interest in Ford as something more than just another car…

Our engineers are increasingly good at creating what I call ‘smart cars’, so the combination of all the human interface and the driving dynamics is fantastic but it has to be put into a package that sort of communicates that that is the essence of the car. I really like the look of intelligence - I think things can look smart if they can look, frankly, slightly silly or overstyled. Everything we are working on right now, one of the primary goals that I tell the team, is that we need to make it look intelligent, that’s a nice thing. Intelligence is sexy!

The new Lincoln Studio…why now?

Frankly, if we are honest with each other, we neglected Lincoln. For the fifteen years I have been with the company we neglected it, even when Gerry [McGovern] was there it wasn’t getting the attention it deserved and part of the reason was that we invested in the other premium brands that we had - we were still hanging on to Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin. Lincoln was sort of the poor

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cousin of those brands, we didn’t put money toward the product - we didn’t really do much with the brand other than create a slightly more luxurious version of the Ford. It suffered because of that.Once we invested in all the other brands in the Premiere Automotive Group, then we focused on fixing Ford, which is the foundation for the success of fixing the whole company and we feel Ford is now on track. We have a very good plan over the next 7-8 years as to what that the brand will do. We’ve got now the time to go back and the energy to go back and really focus in on Lincoln and redefine that brand. I would argue that, yes, Gerry did some great concept cars, but we never got those cars into production and many of his concept cars were based on the beautiful Lincolns that we loved in the 60’s. So, without going retro, without going back to the 60’s, there is an opportunity there to rekindle a love affair with that brand and bring it back to a point where it deserves to be viewed from.

What’s your view on green car design?

Having an environmentally designed car - be it through recycling or fabulous fuel efficiency - is not an option anymore, it’s sort of the price of entry into the marketplace. So, every car in the future is going to have to be extremely fuel efficient, extremely recyclable - I think you will see all manufacturers going the same way that Ford and Toyota have. We have not identified which, and the customer has not identified either, which type of powertrain is the best one yet. We have a very, very ecological

Ford has gone from being a well-respected brand, and still is, to a desirable one

Kinetic 2.0: Dillon Blanski’s idea for the new Fusion aims for muscularity without excess masculinity

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3-cylinder EcoBoost engine, which will get somewhere between 40-50 mpg. We’ve got a hybrid-electric vehicle, which gets great gas mileage, and we’ve got a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle in the new Fusion that gets 48mpg… we also have an all-electric Focus. All these vehicles are out there and, in marketing speak, Ford calls that the power of choice. The reason why we are giving the customer choice is because the customer has not signalled yet which type of powertrain they are comfortable with. I think that will become clearer over the next 7-8 years and then you will see many of those powertrains fall by the wayside. It might be all-electric - I don’t think so but it might be - and I think hybrid electric and plug-in electric is showing great promise. We will see. The strange thing is that a completely normal petrol engine gives you great gas mileage now so that’s sort of our approach. We will push that across the entire portfolio.

Is there a moment when the car architecture changes? Is it important?

There will be a slow transition as we get into autonomous vehicles. There will be early adopters that want everything to disappear on the inside of an automobile, they will want everything to be voice activated. We are not too far away from that actually. If you imagine that there is an interior of a vehicle where the majority of the buttons and all the gubbins that you have start to disappear because you can voice activate it, that’s going to radically change the entire layout of the interior. It’s also going to lighten the car immensely, because you are going to get a lot of stuff that you just don’t need anymore that’s all

mechanical at the moment. I think there is always going to be a steering wheel in a car because autonomous vehicles mean that they will drive themselves on certain highways on certain conditions but not everywhere you want to go! I still maintain that the sole attraction of an automobile is that it gives the user the most freedom that they have ever had in their life. The entire basis for automotive transportation and the appeal is that it gives freedom to people to go where they want to go. There is the autonomous side, which is coming, but there is always going to be a desire for people to drive where they want to drive.

Do you think the Twizy is a car?

I personally don’t think it’s a car, I think it’s a scooter that happens to have four wheels. It’s really an interesting vehicle. On one hand – from the design side – it’s answering a lot of questions. It’s got a footprint that’s really small, it’s clearly the right size for mega-cities, in particular London or Paris where it kind of works. Whether it’s the right piece of transportation for Sao Paolo or Mumbai I question, because different road conditions and significantly more traffic are not as safe an environment to drive around in, frankly. We have a lot of Twizys that run around here, and I think, yeah, not a bad start for transportation. The biggest issue is does it function? Does it do what it’s supposed to do?? I would argue, that yeah it sort of functions, but can you drive one without looking like an absolute idiot? I think it’s difficult - it’s kind of like riding a unicycle - you can’t do it without looking

like a circus clown. When you see someone is a small G-Wiz or a Twizy, they all look slightly awkward, and I don’t think anyone has cracked the awkward code yet to get people into these vehicles. Unless it looks like you have come up with a mainstream transportation solution that people will feel comfortable in and not self-conscious in, no-one is going to buy the things. Is Ford getting its mojo back?

Yes, I think so. If I could show you what is coming in the next 3-4 years I think your mouth would drop open, I can’t talk about it obviously but we have such delightful stuff coming over the next few years and I am really excited. I am about as excited as I have ever been, so we are very positive. We build our foundation on what the brand should be and people are relating to that now. The majority of the products we are working on are global, but we will always have niche products like the F150 or the Mustang. Ford has gone from being a well-respected brand, and still is, to a desirable one. That’s the cool thing for me.

You favourite job perk?

Uh, gosh! Well, for the last seven years the company has been kind enough to let me live in London. That’s been an absolute dream, it’s been inspirational for me, I feel like I have got a better handle on the latest culture, and the latest trends in design and fashion, and for me that’s a perk for giving me more creativity but also it’s a great place to live.

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A s part of a reinvention strategy, Lincoln recently opened a new design centre that will become

home to around 150 designers and engineers working exclusively on Lincoln production and concept models. It’s the first dedicated design studio for Lincoln in over thirty years and the decision to build it is certainly encouraging at a time when Honda and GM, amongst others, have closed down studios to cut costs. The studio is part of the relaunch of the Lincoln brand as the US’s chief premium brand. The Design Center is a truly integrated structure, with panes of glass where walls would usually stand

and open workspaces designed to encourage ad-hoc discussions and innovation. Former GM designer and now Lincoln Director of Design, Max Wolff, said it was “a priority to fit interior and exterior design teams into one space, because often they are two separate work streams and therefore two different sensibilities,” adding that “now everyone collaborates on one harmonious vehicle.” The studio will deliver four all-new models by 2015. Inside, once a direction, or visualization, of a vehicle has been established, the designers begin sketching both interior and exterior elements that eventually result in up to fifteen high-grade

renderings and about twenty digital images. These will be used to create as many as twenty clay models of the vehicle, carved both by hand and using precision milling machines for wind tunnel testing – seen here with the MKZ. Unveiled at last year’s Detroit Motor Show, Lincoln says that the MKZ represents the future for the brand, both aesthetically and technologically – a hybrid version comprising a 2.0-litre engine with an 88kW electric motor will be available this year that will average 45mpg – with a starting price of $35,925. Whether it will be enough to reconcile several decades of damage to the brand remains to be seen.

The 2013 MKZ is tasked with delivering Lincoln’s new and independent design

language. It’s a crucial model for the brand

ALL NEW LINCOLN DESIGN CENTREAfter suffering a generation-long identity crisis, Lincoln look to put on a brave new face

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BOOKS

MASTERS OF MODERN CAR DESIGN/BART LENAERTS

Words: Adam Jefferson

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virtually unaided with the Next Big Thing. The reality is a large number of designers competing furiously to have their design taken forward to the next stage. Only one is chosen, and many of the men speak of their methods of handling those designers whose designs, sometimes numerous times over, never reach production. Other than Welburn, every designer is strongly of the opinion that ‘green’ cars shouldn’t look different for the sake of it; only if the differences in mechanical configuration can allow for new design. Even then, each one is extremely aware of recognising the point

to which innovation in any new car can be taken before the consumer begins to become scared.Many other themes are covered: the responsibility of design in terms of the company, the designers, and its influence on humanity; religion, nature, magic, beauty, philosophy, architecture, fashion, future trends, public polarisation, the perception of cars always looking the same, and the roles concept cars have to play.More images supportive of the narrative would be welcome, and the author confesses that ‘Japanese brands are absent [from the book] because they don’t cultivate a genuine design culture with strong personalities.’

I would argue that perhaps it is more a case of us not being cultivated enough to understand it, but these small points certainly don’t take anything from the strength of the book.Personally the book has helped me to understand a little more about why I am so attracted to cars - although mere machines, they are also art: the embodiment of other humans’ experiences, feelings, emotions, creativity and passion. A few years ago, I was in a prestigious Mayfair gallery looking at a piece of deformed concrete. It was rubbish. Then the artist came over and explained the work to me and magically I suddenly saw the art. I didn’t appreciate it, yet I understood it. The point of car design is to appeal to the audience, so generally the product is far more palatable from the off, but this book has made me more forgiving of designs I considered to be bad: one appreciates the constraints far more and realises that perhaps the limitations in terms of finance, practicality, niche, brand and regulations often leave few options open.Whether you’re intimately involved in the car design industry or merely possess a passing interest, this is a wonderful book which offers an invaluable insight into the personal thoughts, feelings, motives, inspirations and differences of nine men. It gives anyone interested in cars a deep insight into how much more they are than a simple transport mechanism. Having read it, it will add a new dimension to how you perceive cars in day-to-day life.

English, hardcover 252 pages, €60

Salvador Dali once said ‘Have no fear of perfection - you’ll never reach it,’ and reading Lorenzo Ramaciotti’s

reflections on designing Ferraris, it has rarely seemed truer.

‘People expect the new one to be unique, and to be more attractive than its predecessor, which they already adored. It’s hard to continuously excel your previous work, considering you already performed at your absolute best back then.’

It brings firmly home some of the incredible difficulties involved in the design industry.Presented in a conversational style with each designer directly addressing the reader, this substantial hardback book offers a candid, intimate and frank glimpse into the careers of nine of the world’s most celebrated heads of design. The style of the book has a hint of irreverence, and in stripping away any trappings of pretence offers a deep and touching connection with the designers, beginning briefly with their childhood before leading into an in-depth view of their work today and reflections on their past.Leitmotifs include the challenges of working processes, financial and technical limitations, and the realities and constraints of design today, yet all choose to embrace them as a positive challenge and a factor to make today’s cars better than ever before. It is agreed that simplicity in design is the key to longevity and that design today is an enormously different process from in the past – which came from an engineering rather than artistic discipline. Yet every designer quotes the cars of the past, in particular the Citroën DS and Jaguar E-Type, as pinnacles of design. De Silva however makes no bones about his disdain for Japanese and Chinese designers.Each man possesses a cool confidence and self-assuredness and speaks frankly; sometimes in a way one would doubt their marketing department would fully approve of, even. Occasionally you think ‘you can’t say that!’ But they can, and do.

Competition in the studio is another commonality, and conducive to the advancement of design. Having not personally been involved in the inner workings of car design, I was ignorant of the process, perhaps imagining a creative nirvana where one prodigy comes up

It is agreed that simplicity in design is the key to longevity

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LAST WORD

LAST WORDGlasgow-born David Wilkie is currently Director

Studio Design at mia electric. Previously Interior Design Director at Bertone, his clients have included Aston Martin, Alfa Romeo and Fiat. David counters his

inspiration from Italy’s ‘slow food’ movement with the help of his Pininfarina-styled Ferrari Dino and a certain

collection of hills north of his hometown - Turin.

To set the scene for my reflection on the future of the automobile, I’d like to tell you of the anticipation and excitement I had as a youngster in Scotland waiting to go

on holiday. As the youngest in a family of four children, we lived in Glasgow and our holiday destination for as many years as I can remember was Arbroath – a fishing town on the North Sea, a good 110 miles up to the north-east. While my mum prepared everything we would need on our holiday, my dad was outside in the driveway with his head under the bonnet of our newly acquired Vauxhall Velox. This beautiful black monster, although a wee bit rusty and slightly worn, had the style of a scaled down (and sadly now defunct) Mercury. I thought it was very cool, and a massive 55bhp gave it at top speed of 77mph!

Once my Dad had checked the oil, water, brakes and fan belt, we filled the boot full of luggage, climbed in, and set off on our big adventure. The holiday would of course be fantastic, but journey itself would be a big part of the adventure and fun. The journey was so long that we would always stop for fish ‘n’ chips at Auchterarder – but only if we didn’t blow a cylinder head gasket on route, of course.

I can still remember to this day how special that car and these holidays were for us all. Today we would have to travel so much faster and so much further to get the same kind of enjoyment, and most (but not all) cars no longer have top speeds of just 70mph with interesting (scary) handling.

We no longer need to prepare cars for long trips. Technically speaking, today’s cars are so much more reliable and so much faster than they have ever been - complex electronics have made a look under the bonnet something that a mere dad can no longer handle.So a trip to Arbroath is no longer that great adventure, but here’s the bigger picture.

Over the last few years, cars have become incredibly sophisticated and reliable, giving comfort and protection that we had never experienced in the early years. Today’s cars are also superb value for money too - I don’t know of any other product with such a complex mix of elements that is so attainable. Furthermore, the concept of the ‘car’ has been refined and developed to a stratospheric level with engineers and designers striving for perfection. So here we come to

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a possible alternative to today’s perfect car. Although modern cars are superb pieces of engineering, they have unconsciously gained weight and size over the years. An increase in body size together with the massive increases in wheel width and diameter has made the final product heavy and increasingly difficult to use in congested city centres.

On the inside, we are also becoming overwhelmed by features and gadgets aimed at making our life more comfortable while we are stuck in the daily traffic jam. In reality, this often makes it difficult to see over the huge plastic instrument panels that house all the goodies we expect!

All this clutter presents a wonderful opportunity to develop a minimalist vehicle that would reflect the change in our world and the wish for a sustainable future. A lighter vehicle would mean a much safer vehicle. It would need less power and smaller engines or electric motors to drive it – not forgetting far less inertia in the event of a collision. Possible use of accident or proximity sensors could really help to avoid accidents occurring as opposed to protecting the

occupants when they happen. The innovations in connectivity and personal smartphones mean that the car no longer needs to have heavy and expensive integrated systems. A more minimalist interior will also allow more real and perceived space for the occupants. By minimalist I mean simplicity of form that presents the chance to develop and integrate beautiful, natural materials. This brings me to another design and cultural opportunity in the car interior. The Perfection of Imperfection.

Car interiors today are very much influenced by German brands due to their reputation for build quality, and many marques do their best to strive to achieve similar quality levels. The reliability and quality of a modern car is today judged by the precision of both interior and exterior panels and parts. While this is extremely valid and important for all mechanical parts, it has become something of an obsession with interior panels. This may be a good thing, but it does not mean that it is the only way. As a Scotsman living in Italy and working for a while in Lucerne, I find it fascinating to drive back home through Como to a wonderfully imperfect architecture art and culture. During this time I have been working with my

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great friends Murat Gunak – Volkswagen’s former head designer and now my comrade at mia electric - and Lorenzo Schmid on the Mindset EV project (pictured). As the car was being developed in both Lucerne and Austria it naturally had a quality feel about it. Nevertheless we both realised that the car had to have charm - the kind of charm that often comes though imperfection. This does not mean that the interior should be badly made but it does mean that it should be more human. In automotive interiors today both fabric and leathers have to stand up to severe quality standards. This is due to the fact that they have to continually look new even after years of wear. It does, however, limit, the possibilities for interiors. Leather that matures and becomes softer and cracked with age could be very special. A return to the craftsmanship and natural materials in cars - not just leather, but woods, metals and organic fabrics - could certainly help us to enjoy our journey more and even to return to an attachment with the car itself.

In a car like this we would not need to travel too fast to get our enjoyment. An inspiration from the Slow Food movement that started in Alba, Italy, in the eighties, shows us that life must be enjoyed, savoured and not rushed. A car that has such qualities can also be a car for life. As the opening story told of such a memorable adventure, the car being part of the family is also a car to cherish.

A car to enjoy life in.

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Green Car Design/Review - Special Detroit Motor Show 2013

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