Table of contents for No. 210 in AUTO & DESIGN

For Gorden Wagener the new Smart is not simply the third generation of a successful model, but first and foremost “an integral part of the Daimler family”; he is the head of design for the corporation: from the small Smart right up to the large trucks, including the saloons and premium sports cars for Mercedes-Benz. “The first Smart was extremely innovative for the automotive industry,” he continued, “and the second generation had maintained the same characteristics. It was time for us to rethink the exclusive formula, conserving the DNA but also developing it to make it into a very contemporary urban brand.” It hasn’t only been the cars that have been transformed in these generation changes, but even the horizons and the scenario in which the small Smart takes its…

The Grand Convertible was created to gauge reaction to a two-door flagship, a vehicle that’s been absent from Bentley’s portfolio since the Azure went out of production in 2009. It was also designed to illustrate the company’s highly personalised options palette. “Its main reason to exist is its beauty,” explains exterior design manager Crispin Marshfield. “Rather like classic coach built cars of the 1930s or 40s.” Based on the Mulsanne architecture, the Grand Convertible rides on a wheelbase that has been shortened by 150mm. Every body panel aft of the A-pillar has been redesigned, including the doors, rear fenders and decklid, which incorporates a subtle spoiler alluding to its sporting aspirations. The rear fenders have been carefully crafted, drawing the eye toward the more voluminous wheel arches that conceal a…

Motorbikes mean passion. To such an extent, in fact, that models that seem to defy the rules of the market and aim instead straight for the heart of those who enjoy life with their hand on the throttle, are often the biggest success stories. And however strange it may seem, this is still the prevailing philosophy even in today’s undeniably difficult times for the industry, as clearly demonstrated by the new offerings for 2015. The motorcycle is a truly universal object that spans every demographic, with whole generations of users beginning as young as 14 (on 50cc scooters and junior bikes, but the concept is the same), and which is evolving into an increasingly complex spectrum of types, models and variants where the desires of consumers are increasingly met by…

The sixth edition of the Master course in Transportation and Automotive Design of Milan Polytechnic required students to hypothesise a totally electric evolution for the motor car and to identify the multiple ramifications of such a scenario in an urban context. The briefing “Urban mobility culture associated with Expo 2015” reiterated the themes of the five-year cooperation project between the Milan institution and the Volkswagen group entitled “Moving Milan 2015”, designed to explore the key aspects of urban mobility and possible intelligent transport solutions. In particular in relation to the upcoming Expo 2015, catalyst for thousands of visitors. This long-term briefing was discussed by the Volkswagen group and by the course’s teaching staff when the organisation of this event of worldwide impact was still at its very earliest stages. The…

Bart Lenaerts’ fourth volume has the reader appeal of the previous three and the passion underlying it is well and truly communicated. The result is an original tale dedicated to the design story of today’s 16 leading sports cars from which nothing else is expected but to be the most beautiful possible, and above all, the fastest possible. The pages alternate descriptions of the cars – for each of which a title has been created ad hoc which describes it to perfection – sketches, in-depth interviews with and thoughts from the designers and teams that designed the cars: Alfa 4C, Audi R8, Aston Martin Vanquish, Bentley Continental GT, Bugatti Veyron, BMW i8, Chevrolet Corvette, Ferrari LaFerrari, Lamborghini Huracan, Jaguar F-Type, Maserati GranTurismo, McLaren P1, Mercedes SLS, Porsche 911 and 918,…

“A s the goods transport sector evolves, there is significant growth in urban door-to-door deliveries, where specifically equipped vehicles are used. With the Vision, we imagined a highly specialised vehicle for these missions.” This was how Iveco Design Director Marco Armigliato introduced the Vision concept presented at the recent IAA Commercial Vehicle show in Hanover. This concept completes the initial proposal unveiled at the 2012 edition of the trade fair, which simply consisted of a chassis with a hybrid powertrain and a driver area. The overall dimensions are the same as the New Daily, the brand’s signature light commercial vehicle, which also served as inspiration for the formal development of the vehicle. The powertrain borrows certain elements from the current production range. “The cab only has a driver seat and…

The tractor is a vehicle with a unique charisma – where power, strength and a sense of safety all come together in a truly iconic object. “It is a product that makes me think of transformers and their ability to change to completely different missions”, says Guido Bianco, Design Director for New Holland Agriculture and Construction. “The tractor is simple in concept, but complex from a platform standpoint, with every model effectively having its own platform - at the moment we have around fifty, if you consider different size variants and speciality vehicles. We are now working towards a distinct family feeling: the difficulty lies in the specialization of the range, with some very advanced vehicles and other decidedly simpler models, such as those intended for emerging markets, India and…

Innovation together with design is extremely important for CNH Industrial. Gennaro Monacelli now leads the Innovation team, taking over from Giuseppe Gavioli, a pioneer in this field for the company, who created the team some years ago. The Innovation Department works across all of CNH Industrial’s products and is involved in a variety of research, which includes new technologies, telematics, connectivity and automation, and has been awarded many patents. Together with Industrial Design, it is responsible for the creation of concept prototypes such as the Iveco Glider, Iveco Vision and the New Holland NH2. The Innovation team both collects and generates ideas for technology applications and future products. It develops concepts and roadmaps to start innovative projects. It leads cross functional Product Development teams focused on new technologies. The team…

What will the car that drives itself look like, the real car that will perhaps come to pick us up one day and relieve us of the effort – and the waste of time – of driving in the traffic? Perhaps it will not be any different from today’s cars, maybe the technology will only be hidden under a conventional body, as it is on the prototypes on the road in California, Arizona or Germany. But it might be revolutionary, particularly inside. With autonomous driving, because the driver’s seat loses its primary role, the space can be reorganised in order to enjoy the car differently, as if it were a living room in which to work or to relax, alone or in company, conversing with family and friends. It is…

Some cars are so unlike anything else that when the time comes to create a new generation, the task poses a major challenge for the designers. The BMW X6 is just such a car. Loved by many but also loathed by many, the X6 has never been universally appealing, but the sales figures, with almost 250,000 sold since the car’s inception, seem to confirm how successfully the model has - to put it in today’s design speak - ‘polarised’ opinion. And to continue this success into the future, the Bavarian marque decided to focus more on elegance, to create a design that will, perhaps, win over those who had failed to be convinced by the first generation. “It was a very tough challenge – explains Karim Habib – because the…

The name, Project 7, was chosen to celebrate Jaguar’s seven Le Mans wins. The rest is a concoction of the dreams, creativity and, above all, passion of the young Italo-Brazilian designer Cesar Pieri, who sat at his computer and penned a derivative of the F-Type that accentuates the car’s spiritual origins in the D-Type of the 1950s. The result is a design so stunning that after taking shape as a concept presented at the 2013 edition of the Goodwood Festival of Speed, it spawned a limited production model (250 examples), which will be launched in the next few weeks. “Beautiful and clean, with pure but innovative surfaces – it is a dynamic monument”, says Pieri. Jaguar design director Ian Callum agrees: “The Project 7 has the kind of racing-inspired form…

The motorbike is moving towards essentiality in the pursuit of its historic essence. Among the most striking examples are the Husqvarna 401 Vitpilen/Svartpilen studies prepared in cooperation with Kiska Design. Two proposals for a road and an off-road bike earmarked for production which point to the future of the Swedish brand: more than one hundred years of history and a role of outstanding importance in sporty off-road biking; in 2013 it took the name Husqvarna Motorcycles GmbH, setting itself alongside KTM Sportmotorcycle GmbH within KTM Motorrad AG. “We are working to reposition the Husqvarna brand”, explains Sebastien Stassin, head of transportation design and Chief Creative Officer of Kiska Design, a firm that has worked with KTM for years. “As early as the 701 concept now in production, we defined the…

Born in 1988, Marco Castagnetta, a student of the Transportation Design course at IAAD in Turin, won the competition titled “Le Mani sul volante - Your hands on the wheel” organised by Ford in collaboration with Auto & Design. The competition was a valuable opportunity for aspiring designers and enthusiasts to put their skills to the test exploring new forms and innovative concepts for a steering wheel of the future. By midnight on November 7th last year, the deadline for presenting projects, the Auto & Design offices had received around a hundred or so projects and applications from all over the world. The project presented by Castagnetta is titled Sphere. Starting from a study of Ford style, the student sought and used images as inspiration for a series of initial…

Marco Armigliato, Head of Iveco Design, introduces us to a complex world of products operating in many different sectors. “The Iveco brand”, he explains, “produces light commercial vehicles, and light, medium and heavy trucks while Iveco Bus makes buses and coaches with its associate Heuliez Bus”. In short, these are product lines that are as diversified as their missions and the type of technology they use. “With Iveco Astra (based in Piacenza), we design quarrying, construction site and heavy off-road vehicles, while for Magirus (based in Ulm), we develop fire-fighting applications, and for Iveco Defence (Bolzano), vehicles for defence and civil protection”, continues Armigliato. This activity involves two of the three CNH Industrial design centres: “Our team in Turin consists of four designers and two 3D mathematics specialists; the two…

Within CNH Industrial, there is a direct connection between Europe and America. Here at Burr Ridge, near Chicago, is what can probably be defined as CNH Industrial’s largest engineering centre, where Case IH and Steyr branded tractors, agricultural machines and harvesters (as well as Case construction equipment earth moving machinery), are designed, developed and tested. The centre has a team of 12 and works in collaboration with centres in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. The Design Director of the Case IH Agriculture, Steyr Traktoren, and Case Construction brands is Dwayne Jackson, who creates tractors with the same passion, care and dedication that you’d normally expect in the design of a car. “Tractors are very expensive work tools that will be used for a very long time, and people often look for an…

If for more than ten years the heart of Los Angeles innovation has throbbed to the proposals presented by the famous Design Challenge, vividly represented in 2014 by the “emotional” Qoros Qloud Qubed, the main event has also learned how to feed savoury nibbles to devotees hungry for a taste of the future. Standing out among the more imaginative proposals is the Chevrolet Chaparral 2X Vision Gran Turismo, proof of the extent to which at this point in time the Playstation 3 video game is a leading catalyst of creativity, able to generate a prototype that is perceptible in all its (bold) physicality. Ultrasporty and built around a void, the structure borrows the bent steel cue so dear to contemporary architecture, starting with Zaha Hadid, but more than anything else…

Getting about town isn’t a matter of performance or speed but rather of nippiness and ingenuity. Qualities that have always distinguished the Smart and are reiterated in its third generation which comes in two innovative versions suitable for all needs: two seats and two doors for the Fortwo, and four doors and four seats for Forfour, the big sister. The styling template is shared, intelligent and versatile though deployed over different dimensions (80 cm difference in length), with a sporty, energetic character made up of arching lines, a high bonnet and smooth curves. “The new Smart is a synonym of FUN.ctional design”, explains Kai Sieber, head of brand design, “fun and functional because this car has always found its motivation in the coexistence of two opposing but fundamental poles, the…

The Prologue is a large 5.1 metre-long coupe designed to showcase for the future design direction for the Audi brand. Just as its name implies, it is a prologue, an epithet to showcase Audi’s manifesto and signal the arrival of Marc Lichte. “We first defined the brand values of Audi,” says head of exterior design Andreas Mindt, who came over from Volkswagen with Lichte in February. “There’s three major words for Audi in this strategy: sportiness, progressive and value. These are the three core values.” According to Mindt, the word progressive was not strong enough and needed to be emphasised. The Prologue’s front face is still recognisably Audi, though the new slim headlamps now overlap the more prominent grille, which has been widened a full 200mm on either side to…

The Qoros 3 family is growing. The latest addition is the Qoros 3 City SUV, first presented as a concept (in a Hybrid version) at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show. The third series-produced Qoros making its debut at the Guangzhou International Motor Show derives directly from the Hatch which debuted at Geneva in 2014, albeit with several significant changes which – in the words of Gert Hildebrand, Head of Design at Qoros - “hint at what our future SUV will be, and launch a clear message that we are about to enter this important sector of today’s automotive market.” In fact the Qross, which is already in production, clearly echoes the Hatch, adding “a touch of masculinity” and raising the driving position. This means designing a compact vehicle body with…

Smart electric bikes, to leave the town traffic behind and bikes made of special materials, even tailor-made bikes like those of the past, for “gentle transfers”. They are a possible alternative to the car and they attract the attention of many designers. It is possibly linked to changing lifestyles – affecting all types of wishes and tastes –but the phenomenon is also due to a general, and necessary, rethinking of urban mobility. They are convinced of this at Ducati Energia, where the Free Duck 2 assisted pedal cycle project team is carrying out detailed research into eco-sustainable biking. The model proposed incorporates all the necessary mechanical and electronic elements into the rear wheel, which is designed as a separate device. This is sold separately and enables anyone to transform his…

“Mega City Regions Individual Mobility” is the subject of the Designed in Green Contest launched in April 2014 by Studio Comelli and ADI Piemonte, for designers up to 35 years of age. The subject of the competition is to design a vehicle for the sustainable transport of people and/or goods within Mega City Regions, with a proposed timeframe of about 2025. All the designs received have been appraised by a jury of experts, designers, representatives of car makers and specialist journalists (including Auto & Design), which drew up a shortlist of the 10 finalists and then chose the first three winners. The first prize went to Dominic Simon Mayer from Germany, with the Smart My Pet project: an exciting, engaging vehicle designed for young people of the future, which can…

The Iveco brand covers every aspect of the public transport bus and touring coach segment. Iveco Bus design is headed by Claire d'Achon, who works in Lyon and is also in charge of the Heuliez Bus brand. “In our work for Iveco, we particularly focus on the brand’s family feeling, which also entails using elements shared with the brand’s trucks, such as lights, grilles and other features” explains d'Achon. “In the case of touring buses – continues d'Achon – we principally concentrate on the aesthetic personality of the vehicle: from the definition of the exterior style and interior decor to the colour and trim, which in some cases may be chosen with a remarkable degree of freedom.” It’s a different matter with urban, extra-urban and school buses, however, where the…

The world of construction, or earth-moving machines, is special in so far as it combines ruggedness of use with mechanical sophistication. CNH Industrial is present in this sector with its Case construction equipment and New Holland Construction brands and a range that includes backhoe loaders, crawler and wheel excavators, telescopic handlers, motor graders, wheel loaders, vibratory roller compactors, dozers, compact wheel and crawler loaders and forklifts. “Like its agricultural counterpart”, says Guido Bianco, Chief Designer New Holland, “Construction machinery is a very traditional world and we are trying to introduce an element of technological and aesthetic innovation into it”. “These vehicles”, adds colleague Dwayne Jackson from Case, “are particularly sturdy as they have to be able to operate in extreme conditions. They meet the most stringent reliability parameters but this…