Weblog – How design turns itself around

Design today is nothing more than the market style average; the sum of all the nooks and crannies, cracks and holes, LED and laser decorations with which manufacturers angered each other until there was nothing new to invent. Well, normal cars, but that is not what the spoiled market is waiting for, except in the Dacia segment. It turns itself around.

Well don’t put all the blame on the Asian copycats. It is more nuanced. The European design cult caused the crisis, the Chinese are exposing it as trend followers. See what you see in the upcoming Nio ET5 after the all-and-everything MGs, the Aiways 5 or Seres 3; the entire fashion spectrum.

Of course Tesla’s Model 3, its chosen competitor, Hyundai’s stripe headlights, Toyota’s air intakes, in the continuous stripe of light behind all Porsches from Taycan to Panamera. The SUV of that brand, the completely anonymous ES8, can come from anywhere.

Don’t say the Chinese don’t get it. They get it just fine. They do the exact same thing as almost all other automakers worldwide; they try desperately to strike a tone of their own. They only lack the coat rack of a logo and the recognizable style features of a house with history, from BMW to Volvo. So they bravely stir the big design pot and brew the guilder, mean to no one offensive. Offending potential buyers is something you as a newcomer will not do. Good luck, Nio. Maybe it will work, if you’re good enough otherwise. But I won’t remember your latest either.

That’s something to worry about. Because in the great melting pot, what you wanted to put on the map becomes invisible; one’s own face. More than ever, manufacturers feel the compelling commercial need to market vehicles with unique, instantly recognizable designs. In the EV era, there are few other means of discernment left. It’s the only way to avoid disappearing into the silently whirring mass of the plug army. But what do you get when everyone tries to escape the unity sausage? More of the same, because the number of escape routes is limited – a car remains a car. It is the paradox of fashion and the Chinese are punished for it as long as they conform to our style principles.

BMW i Vision Circular

Hyundai, Mercedes and in a sense BMW do that well with the gigantic iX. They all still found sources of inspiration for their own language in the empty design pond. The Ioniq 5 is currently one of the rare characters on the road. It’s the most beautiful and quirky EV of them all. Opinions may differ about the EQS, that enormous, almost French elegant arch on wheels is etched on your retina. The door-to-door protected dashboard is the future dream you never thought would come true. I thought he was awesome. Even before the iX, I felt something. The Quasimodo among the SUVs, in its immense clumsiness, still exudes a self-confidence that almost makes it attractive. At least it dares to stand out from the crowd and the interior is first-class design in its transparent simplicity. Although, statement-wise, it can’t be in the shadow of BMW’s Vision Circular Concept, which hopefully will one day be the successor to my i3. His outward kinship with the strange, radical concept cars of my childhood makes him irresistible. The interior with purple salon furniture is hippie-sci-fi in the 1970s, and certainly no joke. At BMW they know: It has to go that way, otherwise it will be over and out for the car as a must-have. If the era of cracks is over, then a lounge on wheels. Ugly? It’s like my sweet, knobbly plug-in BMW; when whiners start yelling STUPID THING, you know you’re in the right place. It was the same with my A2. And now try to remember a new Audi.