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Mercedes design boss speaks out

By Tim Pollard Motor Industry 22 January 2007 09:40 We spoke to Mercedes design boss Peter Pfeiffer at the recent Detroit Motor Show – and asked him about the future strategy at the Stuttgart company. We had a discussion last year about the current Mercedes-Benz line-up. Mercedes has a very strict design and the idea came up to do a forward-looking car.

Michelin Challenge Design 2007: The not so ugly truth about rising vehicle safety standards

Can cars be safe and beautiful at the same time? That may not have been the case a few decades ago when automakers were forced to hang those big, ugly so-called federal bumpers off the ends of their vehicles.  With vehicle safety standards on the rise around the globe are designers today feeling a little '70s deja vu when it comes to meeting the challenges of making cars safe as well as more fuel efficient? "(Back then) we said it was the end of automotive styling," says Patrick Le Quement, senior vice president for corporate design at Renault and one of the world's most influential automotive designers.

BMW GINA concept

BMW Group Design has just revealed a revolutionary new concept car which utilizes a flexible textile cover to form its outer skin. Called the ‘GINA' Light Visionary Model - an acronym derived from the principle of Geometry and Functions In "N" (Infinite) Adaptions - the concept offers dramatically different solutions that affect the design and functionality of future cars. The almost seamless flexible textile cover that stretches across a moveable substructure has dispensed with the usual body elements found on production vehicles such as front apron, bonnet, side panels, doors, wheelarches, roof, trunk lid and rear deck.