What if automakers could slash the weight of their vehicles 30%, 40%, even 50%? A panel of top designers will discuss that Thursday in Detroit as part of the annual Michelin Challenge Design contest. Reducing vehicle weight is one of the most challenging and rewarding areas in automotive development.

In the not-too-distant past, if you wanted to see what was “way out there” in automotive design, you checked out the major manufacturers’ concept cars at motor shows – especially Detroit. Now they don’t seem to show anything until it’s just about production-ready, so the far-out stuff has pretty well vanished.

Dreams have always been the currency of auto shows, where the admission price buys unlimited fantasies of awe-inspiring cars that never get dirty, break down or gulp premium unleaded at $4.50 a gallon. But before the latest models and futuristic design studies could take form in sheet metal, somebody had to dream them up. In [...]

Automaker wants to shake up company culture to allow more creativity. Toyota City, Japan – After decades of emphasizing staid reliability, Toyota wants to start running with the cool kids. In a new approach announced Monday, the company, Japan’s biggest automaker, said it was overhauling its development system to give engineers more freedom to experiment [...]

Our designer friend and colleague, Elia ‘Russ’ Russinoff, has provided a portfolio of his work to feature on Dean’s Garage, shown on behalf of the Automotive Designers Guild and The League of Retired Automotive Designers, of which Russ is a fellow member. Included among the 40+ sketches/photos is an image of a gold-colored 3/8ths scale [...]

How did you choose to be a designer? Since I was a child I showed a strong passion for the automobile and its design, I used to sketch cars a lot on my school notebooks until I learned about Art Center College of Design in Pasadena California. I spoke to my parents showing them that [...]

Six decades after Touring’s influential Alfa Romeo C52 Disco Volante, the Italian Carrozzeria has been spinning the flying saucer again. Classic Driver talked with Louis de Fabribeckers (Head of Design, Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera) at this year’s Geneva Show.

Cast your mind back to last year’s Shanghai Motor Show and you’ll surely remember Volvo’s arresting Concept Universe. Andreas Nilsson, Volvo’s young and enterprising Design Director – Strategic and Interaction, was the man behind it. Nilsson is a rare specimen in this industry – in thirteen years since leaving Coventry with a Bachelors degree in [...]

Four design center heads from Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors, Renault Samsung Motors and GM Korea and three automotive experts — Global AutoNews Editor in Chief Charley Chae, Daelim University College Professor Kim Pil-soo and Hanbat National University Professor Koo Sang — picked five most important models and Business Focus compiled the chart. — ED.

A young man passionate about art and architecture, Christopher Weil, is part of Adrian Van Hooydonk’s design team at BMW and responsible for the exterior design of the new F30 BMW 3 Series. At Detroit Auto Show, our own Shawn Molnar spent some time with Weil to learn more about the design language of the [...]