Kia Soul'ster
Concept cars are expensive to build and, as we all know, budgets are tight. So in 2009, the so-called “dream” cars were less about show biz and fantasy, more about real ideas that will come to life in the auto industry's near future.
Truth be told, most of concept cars we saw this year were versions of production models heading to showrooms a few months or years hence. That is, if their companies survive.
The era of the “blue sky” concept car seems at least almost over. Car companies simply cannot afford to spend millions on wild, fanciful and expensive imaginings of the future of autos. As Bryan Nesbitt, Cadillac general manager and General Motors' former North American design chief, puts it: “You can no longer just throw a wild concept out there. You have to have a story.”
This year, the majority of the world's car companies showed concepts that seemed on the cusp of production – and their designs expanded on the established design language of the particular brand in question. They told the brand's story, in other words.
For instance, Chevrolet's dual-port (“twin grin”) grille has become a signature design element for the brand. You see it in the current Malibu as well as the Spark mini-car “concept” unveiled earlier this year in Detroit.
Cadillac did something similar with the Converj concept, a luxury version of the Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric car.
But then, of course, just when one thinks a theme or trend has been established, along comes the exception. One of my favourite concept cars this year, Chrysler's 200C electric car, arrived as an example of a new design path for the company.
Ralph Gilles, Chrysler's vice-president for design, suggested that the 200C could be seen as a sign of impending revival – “that a car can be art again.”
On the other hand, this year's Volvo S60 concept car, a truly bold design study, was a harbinger of the S60 production going on sale next year. Then-design vice-president Steve Mattin said the concept represented the “new design DNA for Volvo.”
The coming S60 production car certainly owes something to the concept, but with a new head of design having replaced Mattin, and Geely, the Chinese car maker, about to replace Ford as owner, we also wonder what the future holds for ideas at work in the S60 concept.
In any case, concept cars do generate buzz and they often help boost sales, so what we saw in 2009, while generally less wild and more practical than before, was another collection of entertainments and suggestions of the future.
It's hard to know if anything we saw this year will come to rival, say, the concept cars of the Chicago Century of Progress world's fair, which ran into 1934. But we'll see.
It could be that like the Chrysler Airflow of that time – a prototype that became the Lincoln Zephyr, the “Golden” Packard and the Pierce Arrow Silver Arrow – something we saw in 2009 will turn into legendary greatness.
We know this for certain: car companies use concept cars to tune and shape public perceptions of a brand, inspire employees and to guide designers and product planners in their efforts to shape future models. This year, we saw the auto industry show concept cars that ranged from cheap and cheerful to extravagant and outrageous.
source: theglobeandmail
