Table of contents for No. 231 in AUTO & DESIGN

Turin once again enjoyed an evening entirely given over to designers. For the second year in a row, Auto&Design Night was held at the end of the press day of the Salone Parco Valentino on 6 June. An opportunity for catching up and having a relaxing chat on the banks of the river - at the historic club of the Società Canottieri Armida, as well as in the heart of the Park that hosts the car show - as can be seen in the pictures taken during the event. Torino torna ad avere una serata tutta dedicata ai designer. Per il secondo anno consecutivo, la Auto&Design Night si è svolta al termine della giornata stampa del Salone Parco Valentino, il 6 giugno scorso. Un’occasione di incontro e conversazioni in relax…

"It's not just a question of how fast Chinese manufacturers learn, but how quickly the taste and expectations of local customers are evolving”. So says Peter Horbury, Design Vice President of the Geely Group, who we meet at the Beijing Show along with Guy Burgoyne, head of design for the Geely brand, alongside the Icon Concept that had just been unveiled. "Working here today is a completely different experience to when I arrived six years ago”, he says. "For a long time, Chinese consumers focused on brands rather than products. No one ever wanted to run the risk of making a mistake buying something different from their neighbour. German premiums dominated. But now Chinese luxury products are reaching impressive levels of quality, and confidence in local products is growing. This…

The first wagons to come out of Volvo were called Duetts. Few people remember them - and that’s maybe for the best. The Duett was, in fact, a makeshift conversion first of the PV444 from 1953, then of the PV544 of 1958. Not so much a wagon as an unwieldy van. The first step in what would become an astonishing story, changing the habits of millions of people around the world and making Volvo the symbol of station wagons, was the Amazon (later named the 120 for copyright reasons regarding the name): a roundish vehicle for which its designer, Jan Wilsgaard, admitted he was largely inspired by the Alfa Romeo 1900 saloon. But the role of go-between from the 60's to today's Volvo station wagons, says Robin Page, belongs if…

"Our intention was clear right from the start: to design surfaces modelled by the wind to create a car that was unique of its kind”, says Domagoj Dukec, BMW i and BMW M design manager. Mission accomplished is the phrase that springs to mind. You just have to look at the i8 Roadster to have an immediate perception of the work his team has done in giving form to the passage of air across all body surfaces. The design team has managed to retain the same scenic presence as the coupé version, "preserving all those styling elements that have made the i8 Coupé a true icon”, explains Dukec. The choice of materials that make up the open-top version of the i8 was dictated by the need for easy modelling potential.…

A dynamic, diffuse exhibition, with over 2000 supercars that painted the squares and streets of the city with colour during the five days of Parco Valentino, il Salone dell’Auto di Torino. The positive balance of the fourth edition, which took place from 6 to 11 June last, was due to the almost total involvement of the city itself and the enormous participation of the public, with numbers that exceeded 600 thousand presences. The strong point of the Show's new formula is that it gives the spectator the chance to see rare cars and unique prototypes on display or in motion. This year the opportunity was given by two anniversaries celebrated at Parco Valentino. For its fifty years of activity Italdesign lined up some of the most significant models in its…

Five years after the birth of the first series, a completely different Eado - "A milestone", Chen Zheng defines it – makes its appearance on the automotive stage. Its mandate could not be more challenging: to express, alongside the Raeton CC, the new design language of the Changan brand and to launch a youthful compact intended for a young demographic on the Chinese and later international market. "Eado is an acronym, where E stands for Extraordinary, A for Action, D for Dominating and O for Outcome. For me, from the design point of view, Eado stands for Efficient, Active, Different and Optimistic. That is how we encapsulate the new reality. I have deep emotions for Eado”, explains Chen Zheng, global design Chief of the Chinese carmaker. He also manages the…

What is French luxury, now and in the future? This is the guiding mission of DS, PSA Group’s premium brand that was spun off from Citroën in 2014. The opening last month of DS’s first design studio has brought exterior and interior stylists together to ponder the answers to that question. The answer to the “now” is the DS 7 Crossback, a small SUV that seeks to surprise and delight drivers with details that harken back to the golden age of French coach building - and also offers cutting-edge active driving and safety aids. Five more all-new models, free of Citroën design influence, are to follow in the next five years. DS design director Thierry Metroz and his team have two poles of inspiration. On the one hand: The legendary…

Twenty years after. The Ford Focus has been renewed for the fourth time since 1998, when the first series brought a breath of stylistic innovation to the C segment. "The new design started out from a blank sheet of paper”, says Amko Leenarts, Ford Europe's design chief, with satisfaction. "We wanted to create a product that would make customers fall in love at first sight and stay in love throughout the life-cycle with the customer. This car marks a significant evolution in our brand’s design DNA, which has its roots in Human Centric Design, inspired by people’s dreams and needs. In other words, our products inspire behaviors, while the customer behaviors are inspiring us to design new experiences. It’s a beautiful rhythm!” The designers focused on taking the Focus up…

The slim, elegant forms of the F1 Limitless, the concept car unveiled at Detroit, and the strong, robust look of the standard UX compact presented in Geneva. Two different interpretations of the Suv universe according to Lexus, as design chief Yoshihiro Sawa explains. "We are aware that even in Europe more and more people are opting for a Suv when choosing a new car. As with every Lexus project, we always start from a human-centric concept, Omotenashi. We are concerned about the person who will be using the car: his or her traditions, behaviour, emotions. This is reflected not only in the design of the exterior, which we know is still the primary factor attracting the customer, but especially the interior, in which the user is engulfed every day”. The…

"Awards that recognise the real importance of design and the team that created it must be celebrated. For a designer, however, true recognition is the honour of being chosen by an idea and putting it into practice”. So began Chris Bangle's speech at the third edition of the revived Car Design Award, the prize organised by our magazine to reward the authors of projects that have contributed significantly to the evolution of automotive design. Bangle is also a past winner of the Car Design Award, as in 1984 it was won by the Opel Junior concept, a project in which he took part as he was at the time a member of the design team of the Rüsselsheim company. Winners of the 2018 Car Design Award were the design teams…

At a time when the role of traditional Western motor shows is being called into question, last April's Beijing event was crammed with debuts and proved an ideal showcase for understanding how quickly the Chinese automotive world is evolving. We are seeing fewer and fewer production models that are little more than trivial copies of products with a consolidated appeal, especially German, while new concepts and far-sighted proposals are starting to emerge. There are two key factors in this evolution: design, increasingly managed by international names (whether consultants or experienced designers recruited around the world by Chinese manufacturers) and electrification, as a mission for the near future. Today, local production already offers a wide choice of electric vehicles and the Chinese government's objectives are ambitious: to see 2 million battery-powered…

Red and violently beautiful. The 812 Superfast and 488 Pista supercars make their appearance, as magnificent as ever, within the confines of a Style Centre, like two top athletes proudly announcing their ambition to excel, albeit in different disciplines. Both wear liveries whose admirable overall neatness is torn by formal protrusions (slits, spoilers, aerodynamic trim) capable of dramatically evoking the sphere of performance, sometimes even tapping into the world of racing. "At Ferrari, every car pursues a specific objective", says Flavio Manzoni, head of Maranello's styling since 2010. "In GTs, visual unity tends to be greater, with the lines flowing free and seamlessly, while still respecting the need to manage air flows. When it comes to the high performance range, on the other hand, technical requirements take the upper hand…

While the traditional European D-segment saloon struggles to keep up with the growing mainstream SUV, Peugeot wanted to reverse the trend with its new 508. And design director Gilles Vidal knew how: be different to what your rivals are doing, in particular by adding an exciting expression. “We developed an interesting shape by breaking with the stereotypical approach to the classic 3-box concept. Not by giving it a more dynamic, sleek appearance by simply lowering the body, but by following a totally new route”, Vidal says. The new 508 is 6 cm lower in fact, yet does have a 10 cm shorter overall length on a 2.4 cm longer (279 cm) wheelbase. “The resulting new proportions have given the overall design totally different dynamics. Call it a fastback saloon”. Surprisingly…