Table of contents for No. 237 in AUTO & DESIGN

For the eighth series of the Sonata - the medium-large saloon that Hyundai has been offering for more than thirty years - the Korean company is now launching its new design philosophy, that “sensual sportiness” that was launched last year in Geneva with the Le Fil Rouge concept. This is a language that, in the words of Luc Donckerwolke, head of design for the Hyundai group, “allows us to open a new era from the basis of our tradition, which is to create a distinctive and sporty character in our models.” Everything is following a theme, which Le Fil Rouge wanted to point out and which started way back in 1974 with the historic Pony Concept designed by Giugiaro. “With sensual sportiness,” echoed SangYup Lee, Hyundai’s style manager, “we…

The big bronze-coloured coupé seems to be playing hide and seek in the halflight with the surfeit of little lions crowding the room, imaginary offspring of the enormous feline look-alike exhibited in Geneva. We are at an event organised during the Milan design week and Gilles Vidal, head of Peugeot design, has a satisfied smile on his face: “I love the ability of the E-Legend to combine technical and hard forms, such as the side members under the door with the surface broken down into tiny diamond shapes, with the generous sensuality of the wheel arches and the beltline”. The car is not entirely new, as it was unveiled at the end of 2018, but it is in Italy for the first time and is a highly effective representation of…

While the decline of the big Motor Shows in the west proceeds inexorably, the last Shanghai Show has confirmed that creativity and multiplicity of proposals have moved decidedly eastwards. The new Chinese design expresses itself most successfully when it is applied to advanced technology, particularly in electric cars and the digital interface, as we had the opportunity to observe during our visit to Auto Shanghai 2019 organised by the Internet Info Agency. We'll tell you about it in the following pages through two projects, one for a production car, the other for an autonomous drive vehicle that might seem like pure research but that in a country like China could very well soon go into production. Mentre il declino dei grandi saloni dell’auto ad occidente procede inesorabile, Shanghai ha riconfermato…

"Formentor, named after one of the most famous and elegant places in Majorca, is the first concept specifically planned for the Cupra sports brand, which was created one year ago from SEAT’s offshoot brand." Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos, head of design for the Spanish manufacturer, looks at his latest creation with obvious passion: "It has the advantages of an off-road vehicle, but offers the performance of a sports SUV. We took it to the extreme, with a strong style, but without losing sight of the practical aspect. It has largescale, dynamic proportions, with a fairly long bonnet. It is well sculpted, very vertical, with an elegant passenger compartment based on the hatchback format and not the teardrop shape of a coupé that others look for. It is not necessarily very aggressive, but…

As you move towards that big yellow silhouette shining in its gold-pigment-enhanced paint, one comment can be heard rising from the team standing around it: "It’s a concept, but it’s 80% definitive. The production car will amaze you when you see how faithful it remains to this concept”. A statement of this kind might sound rather bold in relation to the idea of rationality and qualitative solidity in which the Skoda image has been imbued for years. But at the Mladá Boleslav style centre, work has long been underway on a transition to projects that may retain an innate vocation for practicality but at the same time take on board more emotional formal content: the first expression of the new course is the next Octavia, scheduled for the end of…

Changan Automobile boasts a history stretching back 157 years, and has 35 years of experience in building cars. In conducting its business, the company has always followed two fundamental concepts. First, it bases its work on the technological skills acquired; second, it actively invests in research and development to arrive at innovative solutions. This approach demonstrates the company’s desire to exploit and respect its assets and its history, but also its ability to move on and take practical steps to address today’s challenges while, at the same time, looking ahead to the future and studying ways to build a better tomorrow. In the present era of transformation and change, Changan Automobile is committed to seizing strategic opportunities for the future, anticipating trends in the industry to accelerate growth. These are…

The world is changing at a pace that wasn’t even imaginable until a few years ago. The car industry is changing even faster, if that is possible. This is because, apart from taking advantage of the technological progress that is driving the industrial sector as a whole, it is facing evolution in the concept of the car the like of which has never been seen before. For this reason, the automotive industry is making progress quite literally from one day to the next. This is an age of intelligence. In a scenario such as today’s, where technology and innovation are the masters, development is based on various trends, so that now it can be truly said that the activities of a company run on parallel lines. This race for innovation…

“Il Progetto Raccontato – La Mostra dei 40 anni”, which puts Auto&Design in the spotlight until 10 November, was inaugurated on 18 June at the Turin National Car Museum. A journey in time through four decades, from the 1980’s to the 2010’s, covering the extent to which journalism has developed, in parallel with the changes that have impacted the world, particularly car design. The pride of the exhibition is the display of a selection of concept cars together with the original drawings and the magazine’s design stories, which can be downloaded in digital format. The forty years of Auto&Design are a celebration for everyone: for those who founded the magazine, for those who work on it today and for the designers who have always seen their projects published. For the…

In the bubbly, cosmopolitan context of Milan Design Week 2019, the creative talents from the Hyundai brand have set up a space that manages to illustrate with a delicate touch some of the essential features of the car of the future: ‘Style Set Free’ turned out to be an exhibition with a muted but fluid atmosphere, pleasantly caressing the visitor with visual, tactile and auditory cues. Hidden behind this sensory richness, though, there are the most interesting areas of study for those who are already working on the electric and self-driving vehicles of the future. For example, the so-called sound design: “The absence of an internal combustion engine revolutionizes the perception of noise on board,” explained SangYup Lee, head of the company’s Design Center. “It becomes necessary to fit extra…

"Our design inspiration comes directly from the younger Chinese generations. Those are our target customers, the ones born after 2000". This is how Fred Xu, chief designer of WM Motor, explains why the Suv EX5 has such a contemporary, minimalist design, a far remove from the stylistic redundancies that Chinese car design tends to be associated with, “which attract the older generations instead”, says the designer. We met Fred Xu with designer Danica Li, project manager for the brand’s entire product range, at the Shanghai Motor Show, where the EX5 was on display together with the new EX5 Pro version. WM Motor is an emerging manufacturer of electric cars founded in 2015 by a team of experienced automotive industry managers. In the second half of 2019, the company’s second model,…

“Our customers say that they are ready for an even more emotional design, and in this respect the new Kuga comes right up to expectations. More elegant, lower and roomier, it thrills you from the very first glance”. The words of Amko Leenarts, head of design at Ford Europe, describe some of the stylistic features of the new Kuga, placing the emphasis on the emotional coefficient and the new forms. The same that, at first glance, make it look almost more like a saloon than an Suv. "The feeling is correct. Applying the same human-centric stylistic philosophy used for our new models, we have created a car that looks more compact than the previous Kuga, but is actually 9 centimetres longer and 4 centimetres wider. All of this benefits the…

The Magna Design House is now celebrating its 20th anniversary. Since its inception, it has grown in status and reputation within the field of transportation design. Milestones include the family of 8 MILA showcars presented over the years in Geneva (e.g. MILA Alpin and MILA Plus), the ground-up development of a prestige car range and a complete range of trucks for a Chinese manufacturer. Collaboration with BMW MINI led to the MINI Beachcomber showcar. For a Chinese MPV, the brand was created from scratch, along with the exterior and interior of the vehicle. Two generations of Dakar rally cars have been designed and built for X-raid. Additionally, serial design support and surfacing were supplied for the leading global OEMs. The man behind the Magna Design House is Andreas Wolfsgruber, who…

We are living in an era of change. Different cultures are integrating and contaminating each other in a highly stimulating process. People now have multifaceted and complex needs and if you want to stand out, the only way is to innovate and break with the past. This is the context that has seen the birth of a new type of crossover SUV, capable of embodying both the charm of a coupé and the practicality and versatility of a roomy, family car. That is the CS85 Coupé. The CS85 Coupé design team wanted to capture unequivocally the essence (ICON) of this ‘crossover era’, uncompromisingly interpreting the aesthetic tastes, needs and lifestyles of today’s motorists. This was the underlying basis, together with the desire to root it in their own tradition, that…

In May 2018, the internationally renowned designer Atsuhiko Yamada officially became Chongqing Changan V-Brand Passenger cars Design Chief. Yamada and Chen Zheng had known each other for a long time. Their first official collaboration, however, dates back to Changan Automobile’s “PLATO” project in 2016. The aim of that initiative was to rediscover the history of the company and find the basis from which to start the new Design Department of Changan. During that crucial phase, an idea started buzzing in Chen Zheng’s head: “Why not ask Yamada to join the Changan Automobile’s design team?” Chen Zheng’s idea stayed on hold until 2017. There were several doubts: “Will Yamada want to go back to working for a company?”; “If Yamada doesn’t want to work for Changan Automobile, will I lose a…

Changan Automobile has always worked together with universities, with the aim to boost the growth of talented individuals in the automotive industry and to breathe new life into the automotive segment. In recent years, the company has further intensified its relationships with universities and colleges through seminars, courses, special initiatives and design sessions. In this way, Changan has managed to find itself an influent role with European countries and with south-western China. In 2018, a large number of students from leading colleges and universities reached several prestigious goals, thanks especially to design projects involving Changan. For example, after a trip to Chongqing in 2017, students from Umea University, based in Sweden, have set up close collaboration with students from the Fine Arts Institute in Sichuan, China, to explore new frontiers…

Alfa Romeo’s design teams for the Tonale Concept, Peugeot for the 208 and Citroën for brand product range design have won the Car Design Award 2019. Awarded by an international jury and organised by our magazine since 1984, the prize rewards the authors of projects that have made a significant contribution to the evolution of global car design. Giorgetto Giugiaro took part as speaker and guest of honour at the award ceremony, organised in the Castello del Valentino during the Turin Motor Show. Giugiaro talked about the principles that inspired the Sibylla, one of the most recent projects of GFG Style, the design house he founded in 2016 with his son Fabrizio. Giugiaro recalled how for him design is always expressed in the creation of an object that is "feasible…

Very technical, but with a hint of romance. That’s how the new Ferrari F8 Tributo appears, which as its name suggests is meant to be a way of honouring the long series of V8s from the manufacturer in Maranello. “We wanted to return to the identity of one of our typical Berlinettas, (or sports coupé)”, explained Carlo Palazzani, “and especially at the rear, with the double rear lights, our V8 tradition shows through”. Palazzani is head of exterior design of the performance-inspired sports cars (not to be confused with the GTs, which are more inspired by elegance, and which are taken care of by Andrea Militello). “There are a lot of stylistic features”, he added, “that we have reclaimed from some of our queens of the past. And that’s where…

The search for new paths. For forms, materials and colours. This was the function assigned to the ED2, or European Development Design if you prefer the acronym in full, the style centre set up by Toyota on the Côte d'Azur at the beginning of the third millennium, almost at the same time as the birth of its first European factory, the home of the Yaris at Valenciennes. The ED2 has played an important role in the development of small models such as the Aygo and IQ, but now that the design centre dedicated to honing European production has been brought back to Brussels, it can devote itself full time to its primary role, that of advanced studio. For which it has the ideal credentials: small dimensions, freedom of action guaranteed…

To explain the co-branding approach taken with JD (one of the largest e-commerce companies in China), Icona’s VP & Global Design Director Samuel Chuffart cites the two most famous robots in the Star Wars saga: “The anthropomorphic robot is wise and a bit obtuse, while the cylindrical one is nice and useful, even if it doesn't speak. We have to think of artificial intelligence like this, not as a copy or a human derivative, but more like the reassuring presence of a pet dog”. And that’s also why the self-drive logistic vehicle "JD.com" has a rather unusual appearance. “They didn't want anything automotive. The different approach is reflected in the almost symmetrical design front and back, since it is bidirectional, a big advantage in confined spaces like historic city centres.…

Giving a precise, clearly defined stylistic identity to a nascent brand is no simple task for any designer, although the mission is a little less challenging if your name is Walter de Silva. The Arcfox ECF is an electric car concept presented to the public for the first time at the last Geneva Motor Show, and is proposed as a styling manifesto for future models of the Chinese brand. “Behind this project lies a will to create design criteria that will lay the foundation for a clear approach in terms of aesthetics and content for the Arcfox’s of tomorrow", Walter de Silva tells us. The architecture used is that of a crossover, a category that is extremely trendy today. "I wanted to use some highly distinctive key elements to give…

The success of its first unibody SUV – XUV500 – convinced Mahindra, the Indian manufacturer that appeared on the international market some years ago, that the time had come for a compact SUV as well. And here it is, the XUV300: "It has kept the DNA and the style of its older sibling", says Ramkripa Ananthan ("It’s a complicated name, everyone calls me Kripa"). She is, I believe, the only woman in the world to be head of design for a big car manufacturer. "If the XUV500 was compared to a cheetah for its muscular, aggressive lines that communicate freedom and adventure", Kripa says, "then the XUV300 is the cheetah’s cub." To tell the truth, Mahindra had already ventured into compact SUVs – i.e. SUVs under four metres – but…

With its Engelberg Tourer, Mitsubishi has shown us a second design teaser for a forthcoming new SUV model, which it is said will be the successor to today’s Outlander. The name comes from the popular Swiss ski-resort, known for its challenging pistes and steep slopes. “But it is still a study,” Tsunehiro Kunimoto, corporate vice president and general manager of the Mitsubishi Motors Corporation design centre, pointed out. “With the Engelberg we have tried to improve on our Paris 2018 Outlander PHEV Concept-S in terms of feasibility, packaging and functionality.” In fact, the Engelberg Tourer’s front-end design as well as its silhouette are more outspoken and the car also features a third row of seats for two additional adult occupants. But the overall design language also seems to owe something…

Changan Automobile unveiled their CS75 SUV at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show. On its debut, the model achieved unprecedented success. ‘Chinese automotive design is born’ and ‘the most beautiful SUV of a Chinese brand’ are just some of the expressions which welcomed the CS75. Since then, the car has reached a million units, becoming ‘the best-selling Chinese SUV’. Renewing such a successful model was a great challenge. And Changan’s design team felt the full weight of responsibility when they started working on the CS75 PLUS. Should they continue on a familiar path or break away and opt for an innovative design? The group spent a long time thinking about it. It talked a lot with (continue on p. 8) Changan fans: numerous issues were addressed and as many questions were…