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The B0 (B-Zero) is a show car spoiler of an electric production car due in just over a year as the first Pininfarina-branded production car. Design Director Lowie Vermeersch took us through the design and was clearly proud that they have managed to have such a clean concept car aesthetic on a production design. Essentially a compact mono-volume, Vermeersch described how "design-wise we wanted it to be a real car - not an 'anti-car' like some electric cars".
A 300kg 45kW Lithium Metal Polymer (LMP) battery, supported by super capacitors that store energy from regenerative braking, is located between the chassis side members in the floor of the car. Four individual seats on top of this then create the core package.
At the front there is a mono-graphic of lamps and solar panel ‘grille' area which is a subtle but significant signifier of the car's electric power. Along the shoulder a classically Pininfarina feature line runs rearwards and then loops around in the tail light and then forward into the lower door side - a feature that several designers we spoke to felt lacked tension and was out of character with the rest of the design.
The interior is a little further from its final production form, but Vermeersch assured us that the innovative layered IP incorporating diffuser air vents will make it to production.
Pininfarina have not had the best of years with the recent death of Andrea Pininfarina and some high profile moves out of the company. But after the classical Sintesi in Geneva, the B0 follows on from concepts such as the Nido to show that this famous company still has the same philosophy - and apparently the same internal capabilities - as it has ever had.
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Design Review: Pininfarina Sintesi
Pininfarina Nido - Paris 2004
The Chevrolet Volt is making its international show debut at Paris a week after being unveiled in Detroit at the GM centenary celebrations. Chevrolet told us that this is representative of the final production design, bar lamp and grille detailing, but when we looked closely at the car presented we realised that it was actually a GRP model: with an intended start of production in November 2010(!), tooling is clearly still some way off.
The design progresses faithfully the theme of the Chevrolet Volt concept car from Detroit 2007, although its newfound Prius-like notchback silhouette makes it a far more conventional design that the original low slung Volt.
One of the most interesting design features is the blacked-out DLO shoulder that visually extends the DLO down into the door. The way the front and rear lights wrap around and index with the black extension of the DLO adjacent to the door mirrors is also interesting, as is the sharp vertical crease that defines the rear corners.
The interior is more distinct with a strong sweeping IP form than runs into the doors, inlaid solid sections of white plastic in the door and center console, and totally digital instrumentation. The two rear seats are separated with a gap between them running into the trunk, similar to the Volvo C30, and when you sit in the rear you notice also how the tailgate glass extends unusually far forwards of your head.
Overall, the Volt is more conservative than one might have hoped for an image leading car set to take GM into its second century. It apes too closely the Prius in its silhouette and DLO, and there are marked similarities also with the Honda Insight - also debuting here at Paris. And this conservatism is going to be even more evident when it hits the market at the beginning of 2011.
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Chevrolet Volt concept - Detroit 2007
This concept design previews a similar-sized SUV crossover from Mini just as the Concept Frankfurt / Tokyo / Detroit / London previewed the Clubman production design.
The exterior design successfully disguises the car’s large BMW X1 package by pulling the lamps back into the fenders and extending a black cheater panel ahead of the windshield to visually reduce the bulky front. It also has some typically quirky Hildebrandt details such as the pearlescent green door mirror and wheels only on the driver’s side to match the green driver’s seat.
But it is inside that the Concept Crossover is most innovative. Olivier Sieghart, the car’s interior designer, showed us the ‘center globe’ which takes the Mini circular central speedometer theme into a spherical interface. Around the circumference is its speed indication, and on a horizontal plane within the globe is a digital display for navigation on which a small model of the Mini sits. Lasers project onto the rear inside surface of the sphere for another interface, and a spherical surface rolls out on the inside of the sphere on the passenger side to provide a display screen for front seat passengers. Another intriguing detail is the porcelain figurine sat on one of the trays running on rails between the front seats.
The 'center globe', the spherical air vents, the ball bearing-like key to start the car (an idea taken from Japanese game Patchiko) and numerous other spherical elements inside, show how Mini are moving their circular theme into three dimensions, and we expect to see this in forthcoming Mini designs. But we hope that the production design Mini crossover side-steps Mini’s Porsche-like design strategy of taking one theme and stretching it over different vehicle typologies with minimal innovation – every designer we spoke to at the show expressed disappointment at the caricature-of-a-caricature aesthetic of this Mini concept.
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Mini - Paris 2006
Mini Concept Frankfurt - Frankfurt 2005
Designer Interview: Gert Hildebrandt, Director of Design, Mini
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