2008 Toyota Avensis

The future design trends in the middle-class have a common distinction over current designs: more polarizing. The old-school drawing from Auto-Motor-und-Sport pictured below shows the next Toyota Avensis that will move further away from the current anonymous design. If that means closer to a 4-door coupe we applaud. Other than that the technical bits are predictable: superior reliability; superior real-quality (not just Audi-like photo-perceived quality), and more diesels. Another step in the relentless rise of Toyota in Europe. Relentless but slower than what Toyota achieved in the USA because we, Europeans, are a difficult crowd to please.

update: Seat Bolero

Autoweek magazine presented a couple of drawings of the A4-based Seat Bolero (name not confirmed yet). Please refer to previous blog entry for more info and check the sketches at Autoweek.

A couple of remarks. The design is more angular and chiseled than current Seat language. This might just be perceived because we are looking at drawings, not real cars or CGIs. Also it looks very good which is expected from an Audi A4-derived sketch. But the real doubt is: would the board of director's at VW group allow such elegant, sporty and good-looking desgn to be built as a Seat?...

200? Peugeot 608

A new CGI by French magazine L’Auto-Journal on the 608. The magazine mentions a 2011 introduction but we believe that is too much time, even for Peugeot standards. Other than that the design proposal looks perfect and would be an excellent argument for Peugeot to seriously play in the haut-de-gamme segment. But please, at least an Haldex AWD this time... will Peugeot keep selling us FWD cheapness?

2008 Lancia Delta

The picture shows a design proposal close to the final version of the Lancia Delta. Expect the car to be closely related to the Fiat Bravo in both engine range and platform, including the use of a simple rear suspension unlike their brother, the Alfa 149, that will adopt a multilink scheme. Classy improvements over the Bravo are to be found in a better quality interior, chrome accents in the exterior and overall attention to detail.

Regardless of the success of this model it will be interesting to follow how the management of Fiat-group will handle Lancia brand in the future. So many mistakes have been made in the past but we can hope that the future Lancia will revive as the classy and comfort-oriented brand of Fiat-group, with added personality although hopefully without freakish designs like the current Thesis.

The road to EV future: news on batteries

Recently a couple of news pointed to a strong possibility of real-life EV’s in the next years. Mitsubishi and GS Yuasa Corporation formed a new joint venture company to develop and build large format lithium ion batteries for automotive applications. The cooperative effort will kick off with an investment of about $30 million to install equipment at Yuasa's main plant to produce up to 200,000 lithium cells annually. Key-words here: large format; “to produce”; and of course 200,000. This will be the foundation for the manufacturing of the Mitsubishi i-EV, rumoured to be one of the first real-life electric vehicle available in 2010.

Another company, battery supplier A123 Systems, has unveiled two new batteries specifically optimized for automotive applications. One of the new cells is configured for high power applications in regular hybrid configurations while the other is designed for higher energy capacity for plug-in hybrid vehicles. The relevance of this news bit: A123 offers batteries that are for real, being already sold and tested in commercial applications (cordless tools and backup systems). This gives credibility to their promises of commercially available batteries for automotive applications: hybrids, plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles.

2054 Citroen

The vehicle below is a virtual concept car designed for French sci-fi animation movie "Renaissance". The action takes place in Paris, year 2054, and although the movie is very cool the car itself does not look like what we could drive in 2054. It actually doesn't look very futuristic at all. Regardless of the design, the cars that we will drive in 2050 will probably be electric and with a completely different architecture, probably much closer to the Lexus concept presented in Minority Report.

2008 VW Polo

Or maybe 2009 only. The restyling of the current Polo was very well done and the success of the car might allow it to run for a bit more time. Anyway, the replacement is well known since the underpinnings are the same as in the new Skoda Fabia. So no multilink rear suspensions just like in the next Fiesta that will also have a simple torsion beam. It seems the MINI will continue being the only car in this class with a sophisticated rear suspension.

The CGI below is from Auto Motor und Sport and is not reliable. The next Polo will probably adopt the new face of VW (that was already previewed by Auto-Bild although we can't confirm its accuracy yet) so the rather good-looking design below might not be used since it is too "current-VW".

2009 VW Golf Plus

Autozeitung presented a CGI on the next Golf Plus. This will arrive after the new Golf VI presentation. We are not sure about the front design because it should adopt the new face of VW that Walter de Silva will be using for the next Golf and other VW models. BTW, AutoBild has an article about that new front design and although we like what we see so far we need to find confirmation from internal sources. Maybe next week the reader will find in Auto-Future an article on the new front design of VW models, we just need to check with a couple of persons before believing in Huckfeldt CGI. Back to the Plus, the profile of Autozeitung’s CGI of the Golf Plus looks good, it looks like a B-class because probably that was the donor photograph for the photoshop… Anyway, it would not be a bad idea for VW to look inspiration on the success of the B-class.

The Golf Plus sales are not what VW had hoped for. At the beginning of commercialization they were saying it could account for 35 to 40% of overall Golf sales. It now represents 25% so not quite as good as expected. We believe that in order to have more success the Golf Plus should have more space: use the platform of the Touran (that has a longer wheelbase than the Golf), use only with 5 seats, keep the same width and lower the roofline. This would make for a more spacious car than the Plus but at the same time more sporty and elegant than the Touran.

The road to EV future: Toyota Endo

We love Endo and we think it should be available for everyone, you know, for medical purposes... No seriously, other than slang for marijuana Endo is the name of a concept car from Toyota that is rumoured to be presented in its definitive production version at Frankfurt motor show. It seems the Aygo was not small enough so Toyota will present this litlle thing that will compete with the Smart. We like small cars but our interest in this vehicle goes in other direction. While we are anxiously waiting for the first rea-life-widely-available-EV from Mitsubishi or Subaru, and knowing that next year Toyota will make the new Prius available with Li-ion batteries, we are guessing the Endo could also be available in full electric mode. Actually, we are not just guessing, there are some signs in the radar tha suggest that possibility. The begining of the next decade will be very interesting for the future of automobile, that is the EV future.

2008 Alfa Romeo 149

Some recent juice on the highly awaited Alfa 149: the design is now frozen and the first prototypes are on the streets testing. It is expected to arrive in the first half of 2008. Doesn't sound like much time for testing, right? Well it seems Fiat has this software and development practice that allows for less prototype testing and more simulation. Or, if the reader is interested in buying the car, better wait for 2009 and let the first buyers participate in the process...

More info: the car has most of the underpinnings shared with the Bravo (another reason for doing less testing), except for the rear suspension that will be of multilink type. This will have effects on luggage space that will be less than the 400L found in the Bravo.

Mercedes super 4-door coupe

The spectacular BMW CS concept previously presented (just check Bangle 2.0) will not be alone in its fight against super-luxury 4-door coupes such as the Porsche Panamera and Aston Martin Rapide. We are pretty sure Mercedes will present something similar in a size above the S-class. A previous CGI from Autozeitung previews how the car could look like. The reader can see it below and guess what… it seems impossible to design a 4-door coupe that doesn’t look fantastic. All of these uber 4-door coupes from the real luxury brands are great but we wonder when something in the size and price of a Passat will arrive for the rest of us common folks. Precisely, the latest rumours on the 4-door coupe derivative of the VW Passat suggest that it’s late.

Peugeot 308 out in the open

Just weeks before the first official pictures are presented the new Peugeot was found uncovered in French auto-route. Thanks to the person that posted the pic in Peugeot forum. A bit of inside info: does the reader find the new PUG gorgeous?... well the interior will be spectacular in both design and quality.

Bangle 2.0

Just a couple of weeks ago I was checking some Opel Vectra spyshots and noticed what looked like a Bangle-butt in the rear design. Then thought to myself: “if a brand like Opel starts copying such design feature maybe it’s time for BMW to introduce a new design language… of course, something freakish,… perhaps asymmetric…”. At the time didn’t anticipate that Bangle was going to mess with the front grille!...

The spectacular concept seen below is the new flag that signals the introduction of another evolution in BMW’s design language. The amazing object is a concept car that predicts a future 4-door coupe although it will not be in direct competition with the CLS. The new coupe will be bigger than a 7-series and pitched directly against the Porsche Panamera and Aston Martin Rapide. The relevance of this news bit (probably most of the readers have seen the concept) is in the following inside information: although the car will not end up looking exactly like the concept, the most controversial feature will be carried over for the production version and other cars from BMW. That’s right, that front design is for real! Apparently current front designs of BMW were not menacing enough…

Another interesting bit is related with marketing strategy: BMW did not want to appear to just follow Mercedes CLS so they didn’t make a 5-series based CLS competitor (although we believe it will arrive sooner or later). Furthermore, the 7-series based super-4-door-coupe is believed to be out of reach for Audi since Porsche would not allow its newly-owned brand to compete directly against the Panamera. It will be interesting to see how the now strong position of Porsche in VW-Audi group will influence future decisions on future cars.

Saab 9-3 restyling + AWD

Saab is getting ready a restyled 9-3 that will give the car a similar front design to the 9-5. That has not been a very successfull design although in fact the 9-5 is now a very old model having difficulties to compete with other cars in that class. Interestingly the 9-3 will also introduce the availability of AWD, probably of Haldex-type. We wonder if such new technology would not justify a deeper model change? The restyling does not seem enough to give new life to this model.

A completely new interior design is not expected altough it would be important due to the lacklustre of the current design. The 9-3 achieved a very strange feat: altough being based on a mainstream car platform (the Opel Vectra) and pretending Saab to be a sort of premium brand, it managed to have interior design and quality that is actually worse than on the original Vectra... We never understood this but such strange event might be related with the lack of direction, focus, strategy, etc. of the Saab brand in GM group.

3 Megane III

Pictured below are three CGI of possible interpretations of the Renault Megane III. These were presented by French magazine AutoPlus some weeks ago in an article that stated that the design of the next Megane was not frozen yet and that these were the alternatives on the table. We don’t consider AutoPlus a reliable source so did not bother too much about the article. However, this can be seen as an interesting exercise: how about putting ourselves in the decision-making position, pretend we are Mr. Ghosn when deciding (and BTW, the design of the Megane III is now frozen so this is really just an exercise) and choose the best version from the designer’s proposals. It’s very easy for enthusiasts, when seeing pictures of a new car, to say “this is wrong, they should have done this or that…”. Decision-makers have a much more difficult task because they have to think 3 years in advance and consider how the competitors could look, what are the design and technology trends, they have to think in the future, the auto-future!

The first proposal (the blue one) is highly unlikely. It has the new Renault face (like the other proposals) but the glass in the C-pillar is wrong. In the current and close future of cars in the European compact class the litlle window in the C-pillar doesn’t make much sense. Golf VI, Peugeot 308, next Astra, current Megane… only the Focus has a small one already assumed in its design language. Others like the Mazda 3 have it but these are not big-mainstream so don’t expect the next Megane to have the litlle window.

The second proposal is also wrong. Unfortunately, too good to be true. The design is more caricature than real life and we don’t expect Renault to be that brave. Particularly, the small greenhouse and large metal area in the profile are very un-French. We can see people in consumer clinics bitching about that “pas de lumière… on se sent claustrophobe…”.

The third (the red one) is the closest to the final version. A more mature evolution of the current Megane adequately rounded in the most controverse features of the current model. A more composed design for a more composed car thanks to the new super-platform, already found in the Nissan Qashqai, that beyound multilink rear suspension and possibility of AWD will really stretch French superiority in suspension design and active and passive safety. Classier, safer, more mature… fitter, happier, more productive.

Caricature design

The nice sketch you see below is not of a future VW model but it is indeed one of the official sketches done during the design development of the current Golf Plus. Doesn’t look much like the final design, right? Unfortunately this is a very common event, the initial sketches are fantastic but very exaggerated, almost like caricatures.

This brings us to the idea, what if car manufacturers would be able to bring to life those caricature features of initial sketches? We can remember two cars where that actually was done: the Chrysler 300C and the BMW 1-series. The exaggerated proportions (very high shoulder line for example) and the way these cars look with big wheels are signs of this approximation. Both are great successes, design-wise and also in sales and image. So just maybe this features will be found in more new models… The frequent reader of auto-future might have noticed that sometimes we like to follow or anticipate new or future trends (like our EV-future series), and this time let us trademark caricature design, just in case.

Mercedes C-sportcoupe

The next Mercedes sportcoupe follows a new trend in compact cars: upgrade to a new car without really making a new car. That is, keeping the most part of the platform unchanged and only making new panels and interior. This is rumoured to occur with the next Mercedes compact but also with the Peugeot 308 and VW Golf VI, for example. If one considers the level of sophistication that cars in this class achieved it seems rational to keep development cost low by keeping the most part of the underpinnings unchanged. Other key feature: compact cars have grown up a lot in recent years - there isn't much more margin to keep increasing width and length of cars in this class. This is another point for relaxing on the development of completely new platforms.

So the next Sportcoupé will be just a major restyling of the current model. The platform and underpinnings are kept the same but a new skin will appear with a front design more closer to the new C-class W204. This will keep development costs very low and Mercedes can sell it for less money. But they won’t cuz they are in this business for profit and this will make them earn a lot of money.

2008 Alfa Romeo Junior...

... or maybe Alfasud. How should it look like?... it should look gorgeous and agressive as a true AlfaRomeo. Based on the platform of the Grande Punto it could be the retro-car of Alfa Romeo. However, since all classic Alfas are RWD we think it is difficult to have iconic status in a Grande Punto package,... unless maybe if we consider the first Alfasud a classic!

BMW mid-engine Z10 (Not)

Pictured below is a conceptual drawing of a future (in the words of site topspeed) mid-engine BMW Z10. The news is from some weeks ago and was received here with satisfaction, physically expressed in the form of drooling. The drawing has some McLaren F1 inspiration which is interesting and appropriate considering that the vintage supercar had a BMW V12 engine. Although very happy with the idea we were sceptics about it since no information was available on future BMW mid-engine cars but… there is a new top management at BMW so maybe they had new ideas and our dreams would come true. Since then several inside informers have been contacted in order to try to find some truth in the rumour but … nothing! Three well informed and reliable persons have clearly stated that there will be no mid-engine F430 fighter from BMW. Front-engine super-GT SLR competitor yes! Mid-engine, no!

Such was the disappointment that we asked again but no. Too much investment, no recent experience with mid-engine, not enough possibilities for sharing components with other models, etc. Considering the success of the Audi R8 as an halo model and the future F430-like mid-engine from Mercedes-McLaren we wonder if BMW is doing the right thing. Maybe if fans support the idea and strongly ask for it… The only thing for sure is that the folks at topspeed had a dream of a future supercar from BMW and decided to draw it themselves.

2008 Ford Ka

Small and with a Ford face, that must be a CGI of the new Ka. This small car joins one of the fastest growing segments in Europe fighting the infamous triplets (C1/107/Aygo), the new Twingo and the Fiat 500. The Fiat 500 will be a twin model of the Ka being both based in the same platform in a joint development and manufacturing program of Fiat and Ford. Incidentally, the European market and the small car segment seem to be popular for collaborations between different manufacturers... we have the PSA/Toyota job on the triplets and now the Fiat/Ford partnership for the Ka/500. A future trend for other market segments and manufacturers?... In any case the Ka will have a hard time in the market particularly considering the success of established players like the triplets and the supe-cute and iconic status that the Fiat 500 will have.