car design thread

The Oynx was a great concept car.

 

Thoughts on the 'sameness' of electric cars
This is why all electric cars look exactly the same
We’re approaching a future where car drive platforms will be white-label goods from Foxconn-like suppliers. Differentiation will be much harder
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The future of car design is all about skateboards and top hats. The former refers to the flat, often self-supporting chassis of an electric vehicle, housing a large battery pack in the middle and motors at either end, along with the suspension, brakes and wheels. Upon this sits the top hat, which is car designer-speak for the body and interior of a vehicle.

With far fewer moving parts than an internal combustion engine, the battery pack and motors sat in this skateboard chassis perform in a near-universal way, no matter which manufacturer the vehicle comes from.

Power output can be changed, along with battery size, regenerative braking strength and the voltage of the system architecture. But these variables are dwarfed by those of the internal combustion engine, where cylinder quantity and layout join bore, stroke, compression ratio, turbocharging, supercharging and sound to create a significantly more variable means of rotating four wheels. This variability creates character, resulting in the differences between a muscular Mercedes-AMG V8, a revvy Honda four-cylinder and a smooth Bentley W12.

But in a not-so-distant future, car manufacturers could well buy these electric skateboard chassis from a third party, like how Dell or HP source processors from Intel, then attach its own body, or top hat. “We are positioning to be the ‘Intel Inside’ for EV,” says Daniel Barel, CEO of Ree Automotive, an electric vehicle platform startup. “What we bring is a blank canvas... any shape [of vehicle], any size, any weight, any kind of body technology and autonomy.”

So what happens in 2035, when the sale of new internal combustion cars in the UK is to be outlawed? Unless there is an explosion in electric motor diversity between now and then, bold new design and a renewed emphasis on brand identity through aesthetics, rather than drivetrain character, will take centre stage. Car brands that used to rely on engineering superiority will no longer have such an advantage. Simply put, the car's power plant will no longer be the key battle ground.


“It’s a designer’s dream, really,” says Mark Stubbs, design director at Radford and alumnus of Bugatti, Lotus, Ford and Lego. “Everyone is going to be using a similar, if not the same, skateboard chassis, so there’s very little differentiation. Trying to leverage these skateboards gives us the freedom as designers to push the boundaries and create unique proportions and shapes.”



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Ian Callum, CALLUM design director

Ian Callum, former design director of Jaguar, agrees. “It will give design teams more opportunity to try different things, and those things then become more exciting. What happens above the platform is quite exciting. I think it gives designers more freedom.”

Callum says he is disappointed by the conventional look of many of today’s first-generation electric cars. But he's hopeful that future models will switch from a three- to a one-box design, with a cab-forward stance that increases interior space and reduces the front overhang owing to the lack of an engine.

But while that is certainly possible, manufacturers will still be regulated by increasingly stringent crash testing, demanding vehicles to be larger, stronger and with adequate crumple zones ahead of the passenger compartment. Callum points out how, because electric cars tend to be heavier and thus carry more momentum, “there is more demand on crash requirements.”


This hope for a whole new shape of car is shared by Maximillian Missoni, head of design at Polestar. “The size and position of electric motors versus combustion engines allow for shorter overhangs, more compact, sportier front volumes and allows for more interior space within the same footprint,” Missoni says.

For now, though, most manufacturers are opting to play it safe when it comes to EV design. “Honestly, nobody is really pushing the boundaries,” Stubbs says. “Everybody is so set in their own ways or just creating an electric version of a car.”

Some cars, like the Kia Niro, Vauxhall Corsa and Mini hatchback, offer internal combustion and EV variants of the same platform. Others, like the bespoke Honda E and Hyundai Ioniq 5, seek to push design further by standing well apart from every other vehicle their manufacturer produces.

Although it has been a slow start in some quarters, Callum expects more eye-catching designs to come. “I think the manufacturers want EVs to look different so consumers notice them," he says. There’s definitely an effort to give the car a character, which is clearly different from the others. I think there’s a temptation from the manufacturers to create something quirky and different from the rest.”

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REE's P1, P2 and P4 platforms

REE
Callum adds that, even if EV technology evolves to a point where motors and batteries can be as diverse as engines, consumer priority has shifted. “People now, they buy their first car and their first question is: ‘What’s the connectivity like?’, not: “How does it go around a roundabout?’ Priorities change.”


Meanwhile, Rimac Automobili chief executive Mate Rimac says that with EV platforms “performance is being commoditised, or democratised,” and believes commonality between brands has already occurred, even in cars powered by internal combustion. Rimac adds: “Really, where is the big difference between a V8 from Audi, Mercedes, Porsche and BMW? Is there really such a big difference? Look at the Mercedes E-Class AMG and BMW M5; they both have the same gearbox, with four-wheel-drive that can be turned into two, a V8 hot-turbo engine. On paper it’s the same.”


Going forward, Rimac predicts a future “where platforms are really like white label goods, with Foxconn-like suppliers. It’s about how the brands position themselves; having a differentiation becomes harder. They will have to rely on design.”

Change will not happen overnight. Even when facing the existential crisis summoned by the looming ban on internal combustion, the automotive industry is a glacial beast not used to sudden changes of direction. Some will forge their own path with both chassis and top hat, while others will see the simplicity and potential cost savings of buying a platform off the shelf from the likes of REE Automotive, then fit their own design-led bodies. Others will fall behind, producing vehicles that stand apart neither in terms of their platform or design. Not everyone will emerge a winner from the race to electrification.

“It’s going to take somebody who is bold and doesn’t listen to the consumer," says Stubbs. "I’m a believer in telling the consumer what they want, and when they see it they will love it. You’re going to start to see different proportions in cars, which I think to a lot of people will be quite shocking.”

 

Here's a trend that will take off.
Decorate your own car. This will be the next big thing with the younger gen.


"In China, the most popular electric vehicle right now is the Wuling Hongguang Mini EV, a tiny, boxy car just under 10 feet long. Its low price and cutesy look has made it a hit among Chinese millennials, who have taken to personalizing their car with Hello Kitty decor and Pokemon"

 

Of which I was a participant, except in the '60's.

 

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Interesting question. Taught Trans Design for 8 yrs. That's done now.

I hate to generalize about the students, but from my limited viewpoint many students thought or wanted to be supercar/sportscar designers. That's a natural inclination because they all wanted to be 'rock star' designers and do the cool stuff. But the reality of course was that those that wound up in the industry as professionals were more than likely to wind up designing trucks/SUVs. Just the nature of the beast and the ever shifting market. When I was a student decades ago, pickup trucks were not considered cool design assignments and SUVs hadn't even surfaced yet. Everything has changed and will continue to evolve. Now, pickups are the crown jewels and money makers for many companies particularly here in the USA.

And while the future is electric, we don't know yet what forms those vehicles will need to take. Fully autonomous vehicles are still a ways off as far as I can foresee. I do believe the modular platform/skateboard will be the basis for most vehicles because of their cost/flexibility/simplicity. I wonder at times if the era of the Coachbuilder will return. Give them your skateboard chassis and a designer will clothe it with a bespoke body. But the mass-market vehicles will take any manner of appearances whatever the buying public demands. Looking at that Chinese video I posted earlier, mass customization is certainly possible. The industry has been talking about that for decades.

As you stated, it will indeed be messy for some time to come. That's why it's so exciting!

 

The Detroit Institute of Arts car design display was featured .

 

Afflicted with BWS huh?
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As you should be!

 

As an older teenager, I had a number of slot cars that I used to 'race' at the local track. One Saturday a pre-teen shows up with a massive tackle box filled with cool exotic slot cars and proceeded to blow me away and pretty much humiliate any dignity I may have had.
Never returned to said slot car track and sold my Scuderia never to be seen again. End of slot car career.