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I’ll take it in green, please, Mr Ford!
BY
Lauren Teo
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1
by Lauren Teo
If you ask any teenager on the cusp of getting a driving license, “What kind of car would you like?” you will no doubt get a list of cars that pass the test of being cool enough, and a 4-door sedan or minivan will probably not make the list. But lets face it, a 16 year will give you a list of what they want, but at the end of the day, they’ll drive anything (including a riding lawn mower with doors and a windshield) just to get the freedoms that come with having a car. As we get older, our expectations of a car’s design change as our needs change and we learn and demand more about stringent requirements for safety, performance and other features.
The hot topic now is of course fuel efficiency, as environmental concerns increase and we watch fuel costs skyrocket close to prices that would force the average person to either resort to a life of organized crime or going online and selling grilled cheese sandwiches with the image of the Virgin Mary burnt on the top. Governments have laid down the law when it comes to carbon emissions and there is hope and need for fuel efficiency reform for car manufacturers. This has challenged engineers to evaluate fuel efficiency, the carbon footprint of a car, and designers now have a new list of requirements and goals that they have in designing “greener” cars. This is not a simple task for car companies, especially for American car companies that saw a significant slump in sales even before the environmental and fuel concerns were put in the spotlight. The priority for the designer is now maintaining a stylish edge while being conducive to aerodynamics and environmental regulations.
Hoping to revamp the image of the American car that has seen a tarnished few years in the shadow of the golden era of imports, Detroit has taken measures to bring the luster back—not only in design but with an eco-friendly advantage. General Motors has launched their Advanced Design Studios (ADS), the latest of which is hosted by the southern Indian city of Bangalore. This new kid on the block joins the likes of the other 4 advanced studios which (according to the General Motors website) are located around the globe in the UK, Michigan, California, and Sweden. The ADS will use the collaborative efforts of designers, engineers and sculptors to bring into fruition the much awaited Chevrolet Volt, the anticipated “face” of the more environmentally friendly image of GM. The Chevrolet Volt is the “green” poster child of the E-Flex Design studio, which is part of the ADS, specifically dedicated to the “development and production of hybrids and other such eco-friendly vehicles,” according to www.wired.com.
Ed Welburn, the vice president of global design at General Motors recently told BusinessWeek “As soon as the project kicked off, I knew we needed a dedicated team focused on the development of the E-Flex based vehicles and that team needed its own creative space. To accelerate the program, we needed the right mix of designers and engineers from the original car-show team and people with production experience from the production side.”
So far, the Volt, which is a 4-door sedan, has a sleek and modern look but is not quite ready to be put on the production line yet. (The concept car was introduced at the Detroit Auto Show in 2007.) There still remain a few issues (such as aerodynamics) that need to be addressed at GM before they can roll out the Volt, however, industry critics and potential drivers are satisfied that fuel efficient doesn’t have to mean unattractive. "One of the ways design can contribute to the efficiency of any vehicle is through the aerodynamics of the body shape," said GM’s Welburn to BusinessWeek. "The collaboration between a designer and an aerodynamicist can not only contribute to improved fuel economy or extended range, but can produce beautiful and different body shapes." Looks (and size) do matter, and we’re not always happy or willing to sacrifice form for function, nor are we willing to say goodbye to navigating the treacherous terrain of the roads of Santa Barbara in our SUVs.
That’s right campers, the SUV isn’t dead, but we try and be a little more politically correct about it, as is evident with the popularity of the crossover vehicles and hybrid versions of SUV favorites such as the Toyota Highlander and Ford Escape. With incredible dedication to their longstanding laudability for luxury, Lexus introduced its RX400h in the US in 2005 to much fanfare. According to MSNBC, dealers had over 9,000 pre-orders, and this is even before the fuel crisis began. With the latest trend phenomena of the “crossover” (which is a vehicle that has features of a car, SUV and even a minivan—but don’t tell any 16 year olds that their shiny Nissan Murano is a relative of mom’s minivan) designers of SUVs, trucks, and larger-range cars shouldn’t be applying for unemployment quite yet. BMW has seen record sales of their X3 crossover vehicle which, like the Lexus and Mercedes-Benz hybrid and crossover models add opportunity for spending more green on, well, being more green.
This is where the Creapole Ecole de Creation Management (Creapole Design School) is hoping to shine. Training artists/designers in Paris, where fashion and design are considered by some to be as essential as air and water and chocolate (well, chocolate for me), designers are getting creative with even the materials used for designs. To keep up with the ever-changing design trends, students have shown their ideas combining sustainable organic materials and use of low-carbon emitting materials (decreasing the presence of things like plastics) in their prototype designs. Alec Moran, a fifth year Masters Student at Creapole, said “How can we actually reverse the trend that the car pollutes nature? Why don’t’ we use that and say nature pollutes the car,” in an interview with the International Herald Tribune. Moran proceeded to explain his usage of bamboo and spider silk, outlining the benefits of such materials that reduce the “...volatile organic compounds that emit toxic vapors.” But before you run out and look for a bamboo car that will have pandas chasing you down the street, designers and engineers alike agree that these innovations are a long way from hitting the dealer showrooms.
Any way you look at it, we’ve come a long way baby from the days of Henry Ford. In Chapter IV of his book “My Life and Work”, Ford famously wrote “Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.” Times are changing and the trends show that it’s not black, but rather green that consumers will demand. However, if you want something that is “green” as grass itself, I know some 16 year olds that might have some glorified riding lawnmowers they’d be happy to sell.
Lauren Teo
Freelance Writer
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© 2003 - 2008 by TAXI Design Network. All rights reserved.
If you ask any teenager on the cusp of getting a driving license, “What kind of car would you like?” you will no doubt get a list of cars that pass the test of being cool enough, and a 4-door sedan or minivan will probably not make the list. But lets face it, a 16 year will give you a list of what they want, but at the end of the day, they’ll drive anything (including a riding lawn mower with doors and a windshield) just to get the freedoms that come with having a car. As we get older, our expectations of a car’s design change as our needs change and we learn and demand more about stringent requirements for safety, performance and other features.
The hot topic now is of course fuel efficiency, as environmental concerns increase and we watch fuel costs skyrocket close to prices that would force the average person to either resort to a life of organized crime or going online and selling grilled cheese sandwiches with the image of the Virgin Mary burnt on the top. Governments have laid down the law when it comes to carbon emissions and there is hope and need for fuel efficiency reform for car manufacturers. This has challenged engineers to evaluate fuel efficiency, the carbon footprint of a car, and designers now have a new list of requirements and goals that they have in designing “greener” cars. This is not a simple task for car companies, especially for American car companies that saw a significant slump in sales even before the environmental and fuel concerns were put in the spotlight. The priority for the designer is now maintaining a stylish edge while being conducive to aerodynamics and environmental regulations.
Hoping to revamp the image of the American car that has seen a tarnished few years in the shadow of the golden era of imports, Detroit has taken measures to bring the luster back—not only in design but with an eco-friendly advantage. General Motors has launched their Advanced Design Studios (ADS), the latest of which is hosted by the southern Indian city of Bangalore. This new kid on the block joins the likes of the other 4 advanced studios which (according to the General Motors website) are located around the globe in the UK, Michigan, California, and Sweden. The ADS will use the collaborative efforts of designers, engineers and sculptors to bring into fruition the much awaited Chevrolet Volt, the anticipated “face” of the more environmentally friendly image of GM. The Chevrolet Volt is the “green” poster child of the E-Flex Design studio, which is part of the ADS, specifically dedicated to the “development and production of hybrids and other such eco-friendly vehicles,” according to www.wired.com.
Ed Welburn, the vice president of global design at General Motors recently told BusinessWeek “As soon as the project kicked off, I knew we needed a dedicated team focused on the development of the E-Flex based vehicles and that team needed its own creative space. To accelerate the program, we needed the right mix of designers and engineers from the original car-show team and people with production experience from the production side.”
So far, the Volt, which is a 4-door sedan, has a sleek and modern look but is not quite ready to be put on the production line yet. (The concept car was introduced at the Detroit Auto Show in 2007.) There still remain a few issues (such as aerodynamics) that need to be addressed at GM before they can roll out the Volt, however, industry critics and potential drivers are satisfied that fuel efficient doesn’t have to mean unattractive. "One of the ways design can contribute to the efficiency of any vehicle is through the aerodynamics of the body shape," said GM’s Welburn to BusinessWeek. "The collaboration between a designer and an aerodynamicist can not only contribute to improved fuel economy or extended range, but can produce beautiful and different body shapes." Looks (and size) do matter, and we’re not always happy or willing to sacrifice form for function, nor are we willing to say goodbye to navigating the treacherous terrain of the roads of Santa Barbara in our SUVs.
That’s right campers, the SUV isn’t dead, but we try and be a little more politically correct about it, as is evident with the popularity of the crossover vehicles and hybrid versions of SUV favorites such as the Toyota Highlander and Ford Escape. With incredible dedication to their longstanding laudability for luxury, Lexus introduced its RX400h in the US in 2005 to much fanfare. According to MSNBC, dealers had over 9,000 pre-orders, and this is even before the fuel crisis began. With the latest trend phenomena of the “crossover” (which is a vehicle that has features of a car, SUV and even a minivan—but don’t tell any 16 year olds that their shiny Nissan Murano is a relative of mom’s minivan) designers of SUVs, trucks, and larger-range cars shouldn’t be applying for unemployment quite yet. BMW has seen record sales of their X3 crossover vehicle which, like the Lexus and Mercedes-Benz hybrid and crossover models add opportunity for spending more green on, well, being more green.
This is where the Creapole Ecole de Creation Management (Creapole Design School) is hoping to shine. Training artists/designers in Paris, where fashion and design are considered by some to be as essential as air and water and chocolate (well, chocolate for me), designers are getting creative with even the materials used for designs. To keep up with the ever-changing design trends, students have shown their ideas combining sustainable organic materials and use of low-carbon emitting materials (decreasing the presence of things like plastics) in their prototype designs. Alec Moran, a fifth year Masters Student at Creapole, said “How can we actually reverse the trend that the car pollutes nature? Why don’t’ we use that and say nature pollutes the car,” in an interview with the International Herald Tribune. Moran proceeded to explain his usage of bamboo and spider silk, outlining the benefits of such materials that reduce the “...volatile organic compounds that emit toxic vapors.” But before you run out and look for a bamboo car that will have pandas chasing you down the street, designers and engineers alike agree that these innovations are a long way from hitting the dealer showrooms.
Any way you look at it, we’ve come a long way baby from the days of Henry Ford. In Chapter IV of his book “My Life and Work”, Ford famously wrote “Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.” Times are changing and the trends show that it’s not black, but rather green that consumers will demand. However, if you want something that is “green” as grass itself, I know some 16 year olds that might have some glorified riding lawnmowers they’d be happy to sell.
Lauren Teo
Freelance Writer
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| Lauren Teo laughs about how her mother used to joke that she thought Lauren would either be a lawyer, politician, or writer as her propensity for talking her way out of things and love for word play was always a strong-suit. “Yes, even my nursery school teacher had a conference with my parents about me trying to change the subject and talk my way out of things. And I was only like, 4 at the time!” she says with a laugh. Putting her money where her mouth is, the girl from New York is now a Singapore-based conference producer and contributing writer for Taxi Design Network.
Click on her picture to read more about her. | |
| Editorial SG Contributor |
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 | Liz Adams' whimsical and offbeat work has been described as a "rock 'n' roll fantasy land". Much of her inspiration comes from childhood, the desert, animals and eating too much candy.
Click on her picture to read more about her. | |
| Creative US Contributor |
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Read ARTICLES on THE DRIVER SPEAKS
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© 2003 - 2008 by TAXI Design Network. All rights reserved.