Table of contents for 265 - March / April 2024 in AUTO & DESIGN

“If it's fine the way it is, why change it?”. That's the question Dacia designers hear time and again when talking to Duster customers about how to evolve a highly successful model into a new generation with more up-to-date content. “We had to incorporate more technology, optimise consumption and comply with new standards, but it was immediately clear that the concept of great user-friendliness that has always characterised the Duster had to be preserved”, explains David Durand, Dacia's design chief. “Much of its success comes from a blend of good ergonomics and roominess, albeit in a car that is not particularly bulky, given that it is 4.34 metres long: you can use it every day in the city, it is easy to park, but even off-road it is not too…

A sports car with sinuous lines that can fly. We are not talking about the star of the latest sci-fi film, but the eVTOL, a futuristic creation by the Chinese brand AeroHT. The flying car was presented at the CES in Las Vegas and is a hybrid vehicle. The adjective does not refer to its propulsion, which is 100% electric, but rather to its nature, since it can travel on the road like a sports car and can turn into a drone by pressing a button. It is a unique vehicle that combines the qualities of a four-wheeled coupé and those of an eVTOL device, capable, therefore, of taking off vertically and equipped with four carbon arms at the end of which as eight propellers are mounted. The aerial module…

It is not often that designers get to design thè car of their dreams, but when opportunity and determination converge, wishes can turn into reality. This is what happened to Anthony Jannarelly, Chief Designer of Caterham Cars and founder of Jannarelly Automotive: “I have always loved thè Caterham Seven, for me it's thè epitome of driving pleasure. So I decided to revisit it with a more powerful engine and smoother volumes and seamlessly integrated wheel arches”. That's how thè Jannarelly Design1 was born. With all its rally appearances and photos circulating on social media, this limited edition sports car caught thè attention of Bob Laishley, at thè time head of strategy at Caterham Cars and today CEO of thè British brand. “He really took a liking to my car, but…

Design a vehicle dedicateci to logistics in the cities of the future. This was the brief for the IAAD Master's in Transportation Design thesis Project (academic year 2022/2023) which, in partnership with the Iveco Group, was assigned to fifty students. The students worked in seven groups under the supervision of lecturer Davide Tealdi and Iveco Group designers Michele Deconcini, Powertrain & Advanced Design, and Raffale Vergano, Light Commercial Vehicle Design. “We asked the students to imagine a vehicle earmarked for last-mile deliveries in 2035”, says Deconcini. The vans would adopt a scalatale skateboard architecture, interiors dedicated to door-to-door delivery, and make extensive use of smart, sustainable materials. OBIETTIVO: ULTIMO MIGLIO I deare un veicolo dedicato alla logistica nelle città del futuro. Questo il brief per il progetto di tesi del…

“The Turing test is a concept proposed by Alan Turing to assess the ability of a machine to exhibit intelligent behaviour that is indistinguishable from a human being's during a conversation. Basically, if a person cannot tell the difference between the responses of a machine and a human being during a conversation, the machine passes the test”. This is the answer of the artificial intelligence OpenAI ChatGpt to the question “what is the Turing test”, the one that for decades has indicated whether a machine is really intelligent. No machine has actually passed it. Why are we talking about this? Simply because, at CES 2024, artificial intelligence, which we would do best to call generative AI, took centre stage in new devices and cars. After all, 2023 was the year…

Why overturn an approach that has endured over twenty years? Till now, the Double Chevron's top seller has stuck with a concept dating back to its inception in 2002: a five-door body of medium height with fresh, rounded lines and a refined cabin. Now the fourth generation, electric for the first time, has just launched in Europe and that continuity has been cast aside. The C3, now the range's entry level model after the elimination of the smaller C1, has embraced a radically more vertical, cubicvolume approach, losing some of its traditional appeal in favour of a more established practicality. We talked about all this with Pierre Leclercq, head of Citroën design. What was behind such drastic renewal? To tell you the truth, I had barely got my foot in…

It is a tradition, that of Toyota off-road vehicles, which has lasted since 1951, when the iconic FJ40 appeared on the scene challenging Jeep and Land Rover and giving life to a long series of heirs. Today, after a succession of 11.3 million units, it is the turn of the Land Cruiser 250 (it is called Prado, in some parts of the world), which also marks a global collaboration: between the designers in Japan, who have brought to completion the project, and the Californian studio Calty, where the exteriors of this powerful SUV took their first steps on the computer screen of chief designer Jin Kim. “With the 250 – explains Kevin Hunter – we tried to return to our roots, to the purity of an ultra-robust, longlasting and reliable,…

High jewellery and technology, timeless luxury and a glimpse into the future. An unlikely pairing that may seem surprising, especially when we are talking about two brands like Bulgari and Sony joining forces to create a sports car. The origin of the Bulgari Aluminium Vision Gran Turismo was something of a random occurrence: “I was in a taxi in Paris when I carne upon images on Instagram of the book “Curve. 15 Lessons on Car Design” by Fabio Filippini. It carne naturally to send him a message of congratulations and after a short while we started talking about cars”, says Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, Product Creation Executive Director of Bulgari Horlogerie, who has always been passionate about car design and has a past at the Fiat Style Centre in the late…

Equipment and accessories for winter sports are no strangers to the industriai design studio MM Design founded in Bolzano in 1991 and operating in Milan, Sào Paulo and Singapore - which, when it comes to snow-clearing machinery, has already designed interesting snow groomers and snow blowers for major European groups. This time it was in response to a requestfrom Engo, a South Tyrolean company that has been at the forefront of electric ice scraping machines since the 1990s, used in the best ice rinks in Europe and other countries. In just nine months, the team fine-tuned the Ice Panther, an ice resurfacing machine with a high level of technical performance already evident in the muscular bodywork featuring a Y on the side that is so distinctive that it has become…

Agiant employing more than 35,000 - with 29 R&D centres, 20 production sites, a design centre with premises in Turin and Lyon - entirely given over to realising commercial vehicles and buses that are functional, cutting-edge and attractively designed. Iveco Group is also active in the Powertrain and Financial Services sectors. For almost half a century, it has been designing vehicles to carry goods and people worldwide, however, for the past two years, its journey has taken a new direction following the spin-off from CNH Industrial. It has also been given an independent listing on the Milan Stock Exchange, the aim of this being to attract new investment and build brand authority. “It was a radical change that had to be reflected in the brand image, starting with a new…

Sharp angles that change the meeting point of surfaces in a continuous overlap, taut and variously directed portions, sharp cuts played on details of a few centimetres or entire sides. More and more often the bodywork of newly introduced models appears to be built around the fragmentation into mutually inclined elements, sometimes in relief, albeit with very clean contours, i.e. facets. Although not adopted by all Car makers, this is a recurring habit and is invariably contaminated by influences percolated from fashion as well as, and perhaps mostly, from interior design (for years accustomed to geometries capable of enhancing the material peculiarities of furniture and upholstery). But according to what specifics is this approach visible in a car? And why to such a massive extent in most recent times? Apart…

“Welcome to the Black Crystal, the home of BYD design”. This is how Wolfgang Egger, Global Design Director of China's largest automotive group and number one in the world for sales of electrified vehicles (pure electric and plug-in hybrids), welcomes us. We are in Shenzhen, in southern China, where the weather is mild in January and, unlike other eastern mega cities, the sky often manages to be blue thanks to its location in the large bay overlooking the South China Sea. The Black Crystal was inaugurated in June 2019 to become the headquarters of a design organisation with impressive numbers, not merely because of its 12,600 square metre area which could hold almost two football pitches. “We have the largest team in the world, with a thousand people - mostly…

In thè 1980s, thè arrivai of Group B brought momentous change to thè world of rallying. 1982, in fact, saw thè start of a veritable cult era for motorsports and, albeit short-lived, remains in thè memory along with a host of iconic cars, symbols of a deep passion for motorsports. Among thè most significant cars of that period was the MG Metro 6R4, which raced in thè legendary Group B of thè World Rally Championship between 1985 and 1986, exciting millions of fans worldwide. It is to pay tribute to this car –in thè year of its 40th anniversary – and at thè same time kick off thè MG brand centenary celebrations that will culminate in 2024, that thè design team of thè SAIC Design Advanced Studio in London has…

The Suzuki GSX-8S is one of the Hamamatsu company's most recent models and, above all, one of the most recent to have been designed from scratch. Both the Italian and the Japanese HQ's style centre in Japan took part in its creation. It is from the collaboration of the two studios that this Street fighter took shape. To understand its appearance, one must first explain why the GSX-8S was created. The bike is aimed at a varied public that is looking for a versatile and comfortable vehicle, suitable for an everyday use but also capable of a great engagement in a classic country ride. The Project is explained by Yoshinori Kohinata, Motorcycle Manager of the Italian Design Centre: “With the Suzuki GSX-8S we wanted to create a highly emotional product,…