“If you ask the question, you almost know the answer,” he replies. “To be fair, this is the most difficult time in automotive design for 100 years, when we started putting horses in stables and engines in cars.
“It’s hard in the automotive world, after 100 years of prosperity, to fundamentally change everything we’ve done. Some brands seem more comfortable with this than others. “I think the German brands are rather lost. You mention Audi; the first-generation TT made Audi premium overnight – something they had insisted on so much. So it was a well-executed car design piece inside and out: correct in design, honest about their Germanity and the Bauhaus heritage.
“Honestly, it’s missing today. Trying to make it look like there’s a huge gasoline engine up front when there isn’t. Why? Why not be honest? The Mercedes-Benz EQS [electric limousine] still looks like an AMG but the massive air intakes are fake: they are 100% closed. What is the story? And that Transformers look: why all the anger?
Van Roij thinks that nothing in Audi today says “Vorsprung durch Technik”. “The only thing I can imagine is that they’ve invested in this body-pressing technology, so they must have endless creases in the door,” he says. “There is no need for that.”
He praises Jaguar, however: “The I-Pace is a great piece of innovative design. This is a great use of the package. It doesn’t claim to have a V8 under its hood, but has a front cabin shape. It’s not very Jag but it still works. It’s an electric car that’s happy with itself.
On the other hand, he considers that Volkswagen’s ID 3 and ID 4 electric vehicles are “very unpleasant in their proportions and very slab”. He explains, “They don’t look substantial. If you look at a Golf Mk4, it’s a solid piece of design. Its curves gave it a solid appearance. It had closing lines in perfect harmony to create that sheer solidity, without looking aggressive at all.
“I like the Hyundai Ioniq 5,” he adds. “This is the way of doing the retrospective: prospective. He has family blood, but it’s new. It has interesting interior features, such as a reclining chair for recharging the car. It is light years from what VW is doing with the ID range.
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Source: www.autocar.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-07-10 05:01:24
