Car Design Research

Auto shows are reinventing themselves (mostly) — design needs them to. Over the last quarter we have seen four major auto shows take place in four regions. We unpack the disparate show formats in Munich, Guangzhou, Tokyo, and LA and shine a light on what is working, and not working — and how a coalescence of the more informal artful, and accessibly engaging elements might be the basis for a truly 21st century auto show visitor experience. This event and customer-centric approach, as opposed to a smorgasbord of brand-centric peacocking, might then form the back-bone to these shows going forwards. The car today is more a more viscerally rich product to engage with than ever before. Design has everything to win with a new auto (mobility) show format that seeks to bring people to the car-person experience more fully. The show is dead, long live the show. https://lnkd.in/eqYbqSJs

Reports of the death of the wagon are greatly exaggerated* For several years there have been reports of how the wagon is in terminal decline. But to paraphrase Mark Twain, they are greatly exaggerated.   Sales in all regions are down, brands have discontinued them, and people all over the world have tended to buy Crossovers instead. But the wagon is about to re-emerge, and in the least expected way: this veteran of the old-world is about to have a renaissance starting in China, and for three galvanising reasons, that will bring it back into all territories. Firstly, the crossover has extended so far its original reason d’être as a more car-like take on the separate chassis off-road focused SUV that the difference between what brands call a wagon and a crossover is now wafer-thin if not just semantics. Secondly, crossovers are less efficient than wagons being taller (and so with greater frontal area and thus aerodynamic drag) and this is a far greater issue for EV than ICE crossovers. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, the image of the wagon as a throw-back car for elders is something crossovers are progressively inheriting. Today’s younger car buyers grew up in their parents’ crossovers and barely know what a wagon is.   Tomorrow’s wagons must be different to yesterday’s though, design must realise something emotionally compelling as well as offering utility — as we unpack a little in our full article below. The wagon renaissance will only come with a nuanced but critical re-invention; perhaps one of the more exciting design challenges today?! See our full article below: #Cardesign #cardesignresearch

The most luxury of luxury car brands has just moved the bar

Why and how design can leverage their place-of-origin more “Where are you from?” — it’s one of the core questions posed when people meet for the first time. ‘Place’ is a consistent touchstone of who someone is, and a core context to share with others as an essential truth. And so it often is for cars too. Think of a car brand and you will also likely think of where they are from and their related place-based identity. Yet for most brands, place it is an under-used asset — design in particular could make far more of it in two core ways. Although, for some car brands, their associated national identities increasingly pose an existential challenge… #cardesign #cardesignresearch #cdr https://lnkd.in/eHxqNiTF

5 design gems on the new Renault 5 The first storied design to channel the seventies? The first French design to take the fight to British and Italian small premium cars? Full of lovely design gems this one. Unequivocally the star of the 2024 Geneva Auto Show, the Renault 5 steps from Michel Boué’s original 1972 Mk1, and the 1984 Mk2 designed by Marcello Gandini (with nods to the Turbo too) as a uniquely French small storied car design alternative to the established British Mini and Italian Fiat 500 - both designs that reference their fifties originals whilst the Renault logically brings retro references to the seventies. Now a pure EV, the design is full of big and small references to its forebears — more so maybe than any other ‘retro’ design perhaps — mostly evident in its exterior graphics, with core proportions and even form owing more to contemporary European automotive design. Great to see this design realised — in one form or another it must have on most of Renault designers sketchpads for the past 20 years — some of the choicest design details (several classic 5 signatures) we detail in this short article: https://lnkd.in/eUDAjvFX

Is Japan taking the sustainable design lead? Historically western brands have lead sustainable design — from Patagonia using 94% recycled fabrics, to Siemans having made marked headway toward their climate neutral by 2023 goal, to Polestar leading on design circularity and reducing their carbon footprint. But now several initiatives from Japan look set to challenge this. We were in CES earlier this month where we saw (and touched) first hand several new products from Japanese brands — notably Panasonic, Sony, Canon, and Nikon — announce new sustainable design initiatives and specific products with leading sustainable design credentials. And, as part of our wider research to inform our first design trend report of the year (2024 CDR Design Trend Report 1 – Winter Consumer Technology, CES centric) that has been presented to the design groups of several automotive and technology blue-chip clients, we see wider evidence that Japanese design is picking up the baton and running with sustainable design initiatives. #cardesignresearch #sustainabledesign https://lnkd.in/eBDxdQia

Car design just-rightness 'Car design just-rightness' is the holy-grail. It isn’t designs that were expressive or risky or very innovative, but designs that stepped from the firmament of just-then, nailed the answer of their own time, and disrupted the future ahead of them. In this short article we are trying to define 'car design just-rightness' that in many ways is the heart of car design, and list 15 designs that illustrate this illusive quality. #cardesign  #cardesignresearch  #cardesignjustrightness https://lnkd.in/ezSjE3CM

(Your) Car Design of the Year 2023 was a bumper year for new car designs, but which is the ‘best’ - which brings something new and moves the game on in their form and function and a wider (positive) idea of what the mid-twenty first century should be? Below is a list of the top 10 production designs debuting in 2023 that we have complied by reviewing the Design Trend Reports we produce through out the year (presented to the design groups of many of the world’s car brands) and a few headlines on each (and in a couple of days we will follow this with a similar overview of the top 10 concept car designs). We thought it might be fun to see which of these are most highly rated, so please reply to this story with which one production and one concept design from the list (break the list if you have to!) you rate as the best from 2023 (please don’t choose designs from the brand you are working for) and ideally a line on why you chose each too — very curious to see the responses! #cdr #cardesignresearch #cardesign #CDOFTY  https://lnkd.in/eTcsJrQ9