In Zhang Yongliang's view, the "homogeneity" of car design is only the appearance, and the changes in body shape and functional experience are making cars more and more different.
Text丨Zhijia.com Zero sauce
Editor丨Langlang Mountain and Mingzhi Mountain
Lei Jun, who participated in the Beijing Auto Show for the first time, turned around and threw out the "despair theory" at the Zhongguancun Forum on the 27th after Huo Huo Huo of his media peers for two days:
"I was quite desperate after watching the auto show", "The volume of the rim is a 'homogeneous' volume".
"What are you doing here, you're completely relying on Meng."
"If you go to every car factory, they have made a series of cars, and a few good cars are enough, so why do you need so many homogeneous cars?"
As soon as this remark came out, the voice of public opinion crusading against the "homogeneous" design of domestic new energy vehicle companies boiled over the sky.
Coincidentally, on the opening day of the auto show, Zhang Yongliang, director of the modeling design center of the R&D Institute of Dongfeng Company, said in a dialogue with Zhijia.com that contrary to Lei Jun's view, in his opinion, the so-called "homogeneity" of automobile design is only the appearance.
The change in body shape and the difference in functional experience are making the car more and more different.
01.
Distinguish from the vehicle's posture and functional experience
The two concept cars at the Dongfeng booth, the eπ2024 concept car and the e-TRUCK 2024 concept pickup, were placed closest to the entrance.
Although it is eye-catching, it is not the C position.
Location represents attitude.
At the Beijing Auto Show, whose frequency is comparable to that of the Olympic Games, Dongfeng Motor made an appearance in the form of a group. Only 20 minutes of press conference time to give a wider audience of production cars eπ08, Fengshen L7 and nano 01, for Dongfeng, at this stage to win users is the first priority of new energy development, these three models bear the burden of "volume" for Dongfeng new energy.
The failure to highlight the concept car at the press conference made Zhang Yongliang, as a designer, quite regretful.
In his opinion, these two cars represent the design direction of Dongfeng's subsequent new cars.
The eπ2024 concept car is the blueprint for the subsequent eπ brand flagship SUV, while the e-TRUCK 2024 concept pickup truck is a new exploration of the Dongfeng brand in the field of skateboard chassis.
In the future, Dongfeng's new car design will pay more attention to the scene and function, and these two points also determine the shape and interior of the vehicle.
In response to the question of whether the current design of new energy vehicles is limited to "homogenization" and stagnates, Zhang Yongliang clearly denied this view.
He believes that the so-called "homogeneity" in the current public opinion arena only looks similar.
Because the car has evolved into a new energy source, the grille has been removed, and the proportion of the headlights in the visual effect has increased, which will give people a feeling of "looking similar". However, the posture of the model has been changing, and the industry should first understand homogenization from the perspective of vehicle styling.
Zhang Yongliang used his own and other products as examples:
"For example, eπ007, do you say it's a pure sedan? It's not anymore. Let's say that the sedan has three compartments, right, now there is no rear compartment, and its entire roof extends to the rear. Looking at our pickup truck (E-TRUCK 2024 concept pickup), if we don't put the tent in the back, the front of the car may be more like the rear of a traditional pickup truck, which is a change of form. ”
Although MEGA still adopts the ideal family-style design front face, from the model positioning, car body posture to the use scene, MEGA is completely different from the previous ideal, and can no longer be described as simple "homogeneity". ”
In Zhang Yongliang's view, the change of body shape is a way to solve homogenization.
"Rich product features" offers another possibility.
Back to their own models:
"Like the eπ2024 concept car, we have hidden LED lights at the wipers, which can be personalized and customized, jumping out of the functionality of lighting, and the lights can exist as a medium for information transmission."
From Zhang Yongliang's point of view, it can be extended that car design is not only narrowly limited to the front face, but also reflects the evolution of vehicle design in its body posture, materials, interior, and even interaction.
This also echoes the point of view put forward by Shan Wei, vice president of Beijing Automotive Research Institute, in the Electric Vehicle 100 Meeting: automobile design is changing from "styling to experience" to "from experience to styling".
Zhang Yongliang also feels the same way, he revealed: in the Dongfeng Modeling Design Center, designers will deal with users in three stages.
"The first is in the early stage of brand strategy, where designers first have to conduct user and market insights. At this stage, they need to collect and observe more, and do as much research as possible to match the target users and understand their needs, clarify the positioning of our products, and explore the design possibilities of brands and products that are competitive in the market.
Second, our entire R&D stage, from the start of the project to the freezing of the modeling, is about 3-4 times co-created with the customer, hoping to hear the customer's voice and find out what his demands are. In fact, many times the customer has no way to tell us what the design should be, but we have to feel which scene the customer is in, what kind of feelings he wants to get, and what kind of demands, and then we do the design through his point, and the whole process is a co-creation process with a very high relevance to the customer.
Third, after the car is delivered, we will still track the user's real feedback on the actual car through multiple channels. The designer will do a good job of collecting and documenting the work, and some of it will be reflected in other models as the next key optimization project; Some of them will be optimized in subsequent production versions of the same model, especially the HMI design, and we will regularly update the OTA system to optimize the interaction scheme and continuously iterate the user experience. ”
02.
How do designers view the "price war" of car companies
At the 2024 Electric Vehicle 100 Conference, Shao Jingfeng, vice president of SAIC Innovation Research and Development Institute, also mentioned another current situation of automobile design: "The price war is shackling the hands and feet of designers, and designers must learn to produce great works in tight days."
In the face of this situation, Zhang Yongliang said frankly that the pressure brought about by the price war does exist, which requires designers not only to understand the needs of users more fully, more pre-emptively, and more accurately, but also to think about "how to achieve cost reduction without affecting the needs of users, combined with the advantages of modeling".
At the same time, he gave two ideas for coping:
One is to optimize the shape and go in the direction of minimalism, compared to the heap configuration, we need to consider the real needs of users; The other is innovation, such as combining science and technology, using scientific and technological materials, and thinking about design across fields. In fact, these requirements for designers will become higher and higher, but behind the challenges there is also a wealth of design space, which means that we may bring very subversive design works
Taking the E-TRUCK 2024 concept pickup truck as an example, its body adopts a new "forged carbon" material, which saves the cost of a body painting production line under the premise of lighter weight and higher hardness.
03.
Looking back at the concept car
As the protagonist of the auto show, there are a large number of models in this auto show that have not received the attention and exposure they deserve.
After the hustle and bustle, let's take a look at the concept cars that were left behind outside the press conference and see what Dongfeng Motor will look like in the future.
eπ2024 concept car
As the third model of the eπ brand, the eπ2024 concept car is designed with the design concept of "simplicity and beauty", and in terms of specific design, the concept car uses the concept of "FLOW", that is, a fluid design that combines the four aesthetic elements of Fluid, Limitless, Oriental and Wonder.
The eπ2024 concept car has a hybrid body that combines an SUV and a sedan, with smooth and energetic exterior lines, and a carbon fiber wind blade kit on the roof and rear spoiler and taillights to improve the vehicle's aerodynamic performance and range performance. The small, sleek streaming mirrors and wiper cover trim are combined to further enhance aerodynamic performance.
And through the embedding of external screens, the flowing energy is visualized. At the same time, the brand logo and π elements are reflected in many details.
Screens are embedded below the front and rear of the car, allowing the "FLOW" design concept to be visualized. At the same time, in terms of function, these screens can provide richer human-computer interaction. At the same time, the screen is also designed in the lower side surrounding, with the fluid atmosphere light, to create the ultimate flow of beauty of the visual enjoyment.
The headlights are avant-garde transparent floating design, which enhances the luxury of the eπ brand. And the use of Chinese mortise and tenon style and seal style, similar to the Chinese seal carving "π" like movable type seal arrangement in the headlights, extending to both sides, full of momentum.
In terms of interior, the eπ2024 concept car integrates sports technology and natural comfort with a layered design, and integrates minimalist oriental artistic conception and information circulation energy with a wrapping design to create an immersive user experience.
With the theme of "Space Crossing and Space Walking", the 360-degree enveloping HMI design combines the sense of extremely fast driving with a new fantasy experience, presenting cosmic scenes such as "shuttling stars, meteorite belts, and wormholes" in a dynamic form, expressing the spirit of adventure while also bringing users a romantic experience of the five senses.
The crystal transparent screens at both ends move with the rhythm of the music, providing a super-sensory technology audio-visual atmosphere experience. The starry sky interactive carpet is lit up with the step, and the function of "stepping on the starry sky step by step gives birth to lotus", bringing more interactive experience with the cockpit.
In addition, the concept car also supports multi-mode switching such as "Welcome Mode, P Mode, Space Racing Mode, and Quiet Mode".
At present, most of the design of the car can be mass-produced, and the subsequent eπ brand will launch a flagship SUV model for one-child families based on the eπ2024 concept car.
E-TRUCK 2024概念皮卡
The E-TRUCK 2024 concept pickup truck is built on the Dongfeng skateboard chassis, combining design and function, showing the unique charm of dual-form design. In terms of styling, the concept car can easily switch between pickup trucks and SUVs to meet the needs of different users.
In terms of appearance and function, the E-TRUCK has design elements such as dual-form tail compartment (load/tent), multi-functional front cabin, double-sided square cabin, top energy collector panel, functional interior components, and full-dimensional perception HMI system, creating an integrated and changeable internal and external space form, meeting different driving conditions such as loading, off-roading, and towing, and adapting to different application scenarios such as camping, gathering, and exploration.
In terms of interior, the wrap-around ribbon screen design uses a new technological surface treatment technology at the ribbon screen to present the visual effect of natural wood grain. Moreover, the screen extension is connected with the streaming media rearview mirror display, which can realize the function of visual compensation in the case of minimalist appearance space.
In addition, the E-TRUCK will support Dongfeng's next-generation full-stack self-developed autonomous driving technology, with the steering wheel in the car fully retracted, and the main and passenger seats can also lie flat or rotate backwards, making presets for subsequent fully autonomous driving scenarios.
Although the E-TRUCK is currently only a concept car, it still incorporates a number of cutting-edge technologies such as 800V high-voltage technology, distributed drives, CO2 heat pump systems, and solid-state batteries.
With 1,305 hp, the E-TRUCK is equipped with steer-by-wire/braking and active suspension technologies, as well as a four-wheel independent control system and an integrated die-cast frame.
The concept model is ready for mass production at around 70%. Although the exterior and interior hardware (seats, screens, etc.) are nearing final condition, autonomous driving functions and vehicle dynamics still need to be tested and checked closely.
After mass production, the car will be offered not only as an all-electric model, but also as an extended-range version to alleviate users' range anxiety.
Seeing these concept cars, does it increase a lot of confidence in the future of Dongfeng?