AUTO & DESIGN

“When I started doing this job in 1955, the futuristic American designs I saw had their eye on the 2000s, but the actual future turned out to be quite different. Regulations, society, and user needs led to different choices. The future is not easy to imagine. All it takes is one new piece of legislation and everything has to be redesigned from scratch. A fiveor maybe ten-year perspective is fine, but certainly not 50”. Giorgetto Giugiaro's comment at the Design Talk organised by Hyundai in Seoul (p. 27) is more pertinent than ever at a time when, after setting itself some optimistic targets, the car industry is dragging its feet on the actual advent of fully autonomous driving. Electrification, by contrast, is proceeding apace, as shown by almost all the…

Jeep Avenger Cover story 4x4 Concept Few automotive brands have such an authentically American image as Jeep does. That is why the Avenger surprises in every respect: apart from being the first pure electricpowered Jeep and the most compact one ever produced with the exception of the original Willys –, it is entirely conceived, designed and built in Europe. Design included, confirms Ralph Gilles, Chief Design Officer of Stellantis - who is, truly, American: “To design a new model we usually have an international competition between our style centres, but this time the project was assigned directly to the European team only, since it is an additional model solely for Europe”. A project carried out in Italy, in Turin, where designing Jeeps is nothing new, “We have always had a Jeep design…

“I weighed up all the pros and cons of opening a studio in Milan and found I there were so many pros that I was amazed no one else had already done it. It is an ideal place: fashion, creativity, lifestyle, great food. It is historical but also very modern, very close to industry but not too close to be disrupted by it. So vibrant, a perfect place”. Fan Zhang has no doubts about the choice of location for the first advanced design center in Europe of GAC (Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd.), the Chinese carmaker that sees him in the role of Vice President R&D Center, i.e. head of all design activities. We converse with him in Milan along with Pontus Fontaeus and Stephane Janin, directors respectively of GAC's…

Mitsubishi XFC Concept car It wouldn't be Japanese if it weren't accompanied by curious little words to indicate its character. In the case of the XFC Concept, as Seiji Watanabe, Design General Manager at Mitsubishi, explains, the words are kaku, tan and jun: “Kaku stands for confidence, simplicity, ability to foresee a potential danger. Tan implies an athletic design, dynamism and agility. Jun stands for great purity, authentic essence, in short it encapsulates the concept of Timeless Modernity which is our new design philosophy: simplicity but in a strong design that represents the mitsubishness of the future.” Without thereby cancelling the dogma of the house, “Robust and Ingenious.” In reality, the XFC compact concept is not only an exercise in style but a precursor to a B-segment production car due out…

Commanding. Confident. Invincible. Three words that explain soul and appearance of the Super Duty, the F-series heavy work truck that Ford deploys next to its jewel F-150, the best-selling pickup in America. Ambitious words, chosen even before putting hand to pencil and paper and completely renewing, for this fifth generation, the range of heavy-duty vehicles that have dominated the scene since 1998. “Super Duty is the trusted brand for the toughest jobs”, proclaims Jim Farley, Ford president and CEO. “Those three words – says Ehab Kaoud, Chief Designer of Ford trucks, North America – do not necessarily describe the aesthetics of the Super Duty, but rather what this truck represents for those who use it.” The Super Duty is a whole family. There are three pickups: F250, F-350 and F-450,…

Half a century of steady progress, eyes fixed firmly on the road ahead. “The time has come to throw open the doors to the past and explore our design heritage to help us build the next fifty years”, says Luc Donckerwolke, Chief Creative Officer of Hyundai Motor Group. We are in Seoul, where he and Sangyup Lee, Hyundai's Design Executive Vice President, have organised a meeting with a special guest: Giorgetto Giugiaro, the creator of the Pony presented at the Turin Motor Show in 1974, the point of departure for the Korean manufacturer and today a styling benchmark for its creatives. Also unveiled at that same show was the Pony Coupe which, unlike the hatchback, never made it into production. The original model was lost, but its appeal lived on:…