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During its 30 year history, I.DE.A Institute has been noted more for its engineering and prototyping services than design. With a recent change in management, the company has transferred from its historical premises in Villa Cantamerla to a prestigious headquarters in Turin and the development of the ERA concept and return to the Geneva Motor Show after an absence of ten years are deliberate signs of the rebirth of the company.
The ERA was first previewed in Turin last May during the celebrations for the company's 30th anniversary and was later part of the fabulous ‘Dreams' exhibition last autumn. CDN was introduced to the car back in November, when it was presented to us by I.DE.A's young styling manager Umberto Palermo and this version at the Geneva Motor Show is a revised development of the car with a new front end, gullwing doors and full interior added. The revised bright white body color and new wheels seen here are a huge improvement over the previous silver color and the very bright booth lighting helped to give it a much less retro look than was our previous impression.
The top surfaces of the hood and trunk are notably fluid, almost appearing as a veil lain over the solid lower half of the body. The intersection of this ‘veil' and the sides is formed by a fender crown line that loops over the front and rear wheels before fading out at the rear, with a broad shoulder surface that's slightly concave. The new front end is most successful, with its aggressive face, slim three-bar grille and large side intakes.
The side view has a revised sill section with a dark winglet added and the three new finger indents added for the hood, doors and rear trunk help to punctuate the volumes and add further character to the design. Overall, the ERA was one of nicest concepts from the Italian carrozzeria at the show this year.
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Hot on the heels of the global unveil of the E-Class sedan in Detroit in January came the reveal of the production version of its new sister the E-Class coupe in Geneva.
The younger sibling is better looking in all respects and a more coherent design all round. The difference starts with the large three-pointed star incorporated in the graphically bolder and cleaner twin vane grille at the front of a bonnet that is more aggressively wedged and angled inwards. It has the same front overhang as the sedan, but a shorter wheelbase, a much lower roof and a smaller greenhouse.
In side profile the Coupe has a similarly flared rear wheelarch line to the sedan - that leads back to the rear light clusters - but the overall effect is more successful because the Coupe's arch doesn't clash with its shorter side character line - fading away before it gets too close.
Inside the car, design boss Gorden Wagener says the IP is more angled than the sedan and takes inspiration from the wingspan shape of a stealth fighter plane. The driver's area features an all-new slimmer three-spoke steering wheel that will roll out to other coupe ranges and four slim bucket-style seats that allow for reasonable rear seat space. Access to the rear seats is assisted by headrests that retract electronically when the front seat is pushed forward, allowing them to fold further towards the dashboard and out of the way. It's a fittingly neat detail for a smart overall design.
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This was an easy car to miss at the show but one that deserves a closer look. Since 1999, EDAG has produced a number of concept cars, some little more than restyled versions of existing cars. With the "Light Car - Open Source" however, EDAG is showing a more advanced approach that shows innovative use of the glazing of the car and a number of new materials and technologies.
Most interestingly, the driver can design the outlines of the front and rear lights to his individual taste, by drawing on the surface and dragging the shapes into a desired position, similar to moving the icons on an iPhone or a PC desktop. We've seen this idea for using OLEDs in a number of student research projects over the last two years but this is the first time to see a more professional interpretation of the idea as a full-size working model. The transparent tailgate has embedded symbols in the surface to communicate with following drivers - such as warnings for road works ahead or braking severity - and the front face is left blank as a simple black screen.
Talking with Johannes Barckmann, Head of the EDAG Design Studio, he explained that the glossy black exterior color was deliberate to eliminate the visual gap between windows and body. "The bodyside surface was driven by the character of the reflections we wanted. There's no discernible transition between the screen, hood and front mask: the lighting should be surprising and fascinating when illuminated". While the exterior styling is somewhat literal, the bodyshell is innovative in that it uses 100 percent recyclable basalt fiber developed by ASA.TEC.
Although presented as a simple milled model with no interior, the showcar acted as an effective demonstration for the ideas that EDAG will offer to a number of computer and software developers to apply their new technologies to take the project a stage further, hence the ‘open source' title of the car.
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