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* USA / China - FANTASTIC CARS DESIGN
* Michigan / USA - Visteon's fantastical Glide Concept spied in Shanghai (China)
(Image: One part Aventador, Porsche 918, McLaren P1 and Acura NSX, this open-topped, gull winged beauty is the work of Shizuki Kajiyama, Visteon's Design Studio Manager)Van Buren Township,MICH,USA/Shanghai,SH,China -Gizmag, by Angus MacKenzie -April 29, 2013: ... Unveiled last year in Beijing, the Glide Concept caught our eye at this year’s Shanghai Auto Show... This open-topped, gull winged beauty is the work of Shizuki Kajiyama, Visteon's Design Studio Manager. According to Shizuki the reasoning for the Glide Concept’s existence is business driven: Demonstrate Yangfeng Visteon’s exterior design abilities and generate and secure future clients and work from the concept. Where most companies would be happy with a computer rendered, or scaled down clay model as a marketing tool, Yangfeng Visteon felt a full sized concept was needed to make an effective business case. In business this is known as exceeding expectations and certain Gen Y individuals could learn a thing or two here... Visteon’s goal of creating a physical example of its design abilities definitely exceeded expectations. The concept is sure to succeed in its goal of generating work for Yangfeng Visteon’s design team, but unfortunately there are currently no plans to put the Glide Concept into production...
* Shanghai - Tongji Automotive Design Research Institute begins to make its mark
Shanghai,SH,China -Gizmag, by Mike Hanlon -April 28, 2013: -- In the new world automotive order dominated by China, there are many new names we'll soon become familiar with and the Tongji Automotive Design Research Institute (TADRI) is one destined for global prominence. TADRI was established in 2009 as a key to the Chinese (and Shanghai's Municipal) Government plan to create a center of automotive expertise that is intended to give the Chinese automotive industry a competitive edge – think of TADRI as China's automotive equivalent to America's MIT... TADRI is part of a group of high capability institutions based in Shanghai's Automotive City, and is centered around Shanghai's elite Tongji University. The people who get to Tongji University are the best, and the employees of TADRI are the best of the best graduates plus foreign experts of the highest ilk in their relevant fields... TADRI recognizes that as China grows, and that the traditional-size cars are already creating massive problems across China, and the next generation of Chinese personal mobility will be smaller and more efficient... There were three fascinating concept cars on show that TADRI had been intimately involved in:
The most prominent TADRI-related vehicle on display at Auto Shanghai was the Volkswagen 4FUN, the winner of the 2013 Volkswagen People's Car Project... In this year's process, TADRI worked with Volkswagen to identify and define the parameters of the vehicle – a seven-seat MPV designed for the now traditional Chinese family of four grandparents, two parents and one child... The 4FUN is a seven-seat electric vehicle with wireless charging underneath and a solar panel roof adding energy from above...
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Tongji University has long been a global leader in the development of fuel cell systems, and although very few details were released regarding the purple Volare Roadster which graced the TADRI stand at Auto Shanghai, rest assured the internals would have been very special... The formation of TADRI and its intensive collaboration with the Clean Energy Vehicle Engineering Center in developing automotive hydrogen fuel cells is just a small part of the role TADRI will play in China's coming hydrogen economy. TADRI is working on every level of the Chinese and Shanghai Government plans, from the promotion of fuel cell and hybrid vehicles, the design and building of prototype hydrogen refueling stations, to the technical development of fuel cells for automotive usage... The Volare is known to have a newly developed hydrogen fuel cell – we just don't know any details. What is known is that the car has wheel motors on all four wheels (and is hence four-wheel-drive), and a top speed of 150 km/h (93 mph)...
The TADRI IEV was also one of the many cars on stands around Auto Shanghai that had a scarcity of information available... The IEV is just one of many designs TADRI has been working on in this area, and several such designs, one very similar to Toyota's i-REAL prototype, were pictured in TADRI literature... An earlier version of the IEV was on display at Auto China in Beijing last year. I spent time speaking with the engineers on the stand at Shanghai, and though many of the capabilities of the IEV have been kept purposefully vague, mainly because they are forever changing and evolving, I was left in no doubt that the IEV is a very important project with significant implications for the future of transport in China (and hence, for the rest of the world's urban areas too)... The IEV, by design, has a top speed in vicinity of 25 km/h and a range around 40 km... Like the Toyota PM prototype of a decade ago, it angles backwards to create a longer wheelbase at speed, giving it greater stability, while standing more upright at lower speeds to reduce its footprint... Put the Tongji name in your memory banks – it will become increasingly relevant whenever personal mobility is discussed in coming years...
* China - What the heck is a GWKULLA?
Beijing,China -Gizmag, by Angus MacKenzie -April 30, 2013: -- Hot on the heels of last week’s F1 inspired Renault Twizy comes another (slightly) less outlandish EV in the form of the awkwardly named GWKULLA. This concept from Great Wall Motors showed its pert little face at the Shanghai Auto show last week... The diminutive car's diminutive electric motor generates 15 hp and 50 Nm (37 lb.ft) of torque to drive those tiny rear wheels. This delivers a claimed top speed of 65 km/h (40.5 mph) and a range of 100 kilometers (62 miles), while recharge time is specced at 4.5 hours through a regular 220 V power outlet... The concept shown in Shanghai is part of the ongoing Great Wall KULLA concept series. This series first appeared at Beijing’s Auto China Show in 2008 and has been shown in several forms at major Chinese auto shows since. The various iterations include a slim four seater, a slightly chubbier four seater, and a fully enclosed tandem two-seater similar to the current version... From our photos taken in Shanghai one fairly quickly picks up on the fact there are no doors. The drop down “plasticky gullwing doors” look borrowed from a child’s electric buggy and being taller than it is wide, the GWKULLA looks like it's well-suited to negotiate the urban squeeze ... though it might not fare at all well on the skidpad...
Labels: automakers news worldwide, concept cars
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