Audi has revealed the A7 Sportback, a five-door vehicle built on an all-new platform. The new car, previewed in concept form at the 2009 NAIAS, is said to employ the sporty elegance of a coupe, the comfort of a sedan and the practicality of a station wagon, according to the Ignolstadt firm.
The A7 Sportback is nearly identical the current A6 sedan in size, with a length of 4970mm and width of 1910mm, but the new car features a plunging roofline making it stand only 1420mm tall. The slim and athletic design (both keywords in the design process) is characterized by dramatic, flowing lines and a negative rear end shape inspired by the Audi 100 Coupe from the late 1960s. The A7 Sportback also has an impressive 0.28Cd and features a high proportion of aluminum for increased rigidity and lighter weight.
Inside, the A7 features a wraparound theme, inspired in part by yacht design: a horizontal line encircles the driver and front-seat passenger to provide a feeling of safety and security. The wave-shaped application strip is the salient element of the dashboard, which further emphasizes the lightweight theme of the exterior.
Photo Gallery: Audi A7 Sportback
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"Ford has changed everything about the new Explorer, yet it's still instantly and instinctively recognizable as a Ford Explorer," suggests Moray Callum, Ford's Executive Director of North America Design. With customers out of love with large SUVs and demanding better fuel economy, Ford has rethought the large SUV. This is the first Explorer to use unibody construction, saving 180kg in weight compared to the previous model.
The exterior, designed under the management of Melvin Betancourt, is less radical than NAIAS 2008's Explorer America concept may have led us to believe but nonetheless features more car-like styling and Ford's now familiar three-bar North American grille. Blacked out A, B and D-pillars lend the car a strong graphical identity, combining with wrap-around head and taillights and blown fenders to give the car a powerful stance, yet helping it appear more compact than its 5006mm length, 2209mm width and 1800mm height suggest.
The interior, designed under the management of Mike Arbaugh was quality benchmarked against Audi and features Ford's new MyFord Touch center console and gauge cluster design hallmarks and a terrain management selector, which bears remarkable (yet unsurprising) similarity to the system used in Land Rover products.
BMW has unveiled its second generation X3 SUV. At 4648mm long, 1881mm wide and 1661mm high, it is longer, wider and slightly lower than its predecessor. This model steps back from the more controversial surface and graphical treatments of the previous model, yet the greatest change is a subtle shift in character, away from the traditional tall station wagon body, to one more in the mold of Audi's Q5 – almost a hatchback – note the side profile with faster raked rear screen, rounded DLO and lower, dipping roofline.
The most striking exterior element is the sharp crease in the body side, augmented by two secondary character lines over each wheelarch. Elsewhere, the lower body plastic cladding is better integrated into the overall form, while there are strong references to both X1 and X5 – the rear aspect being reminiscent of the larger car.
Inside, the X3 features higher quality materials including some modern-looking wood veneers. The cabin environment is more driver-orientated, with an angled center console and a novel, sweeping dash top that breaks away from the instrument binnacle, and wraps down the passenger side of the center console.
The new Peugeot 508, previewed by the 5byPeugeot Geneva show car earlier this year, is the replacement for the D-segment 407 and the larger E-segment 607.
The 508 retains many of the design themes of the concept: a more restrained grille outline, diving headlamp graphic and embossed lion emblem surface convey a similar DRG. The sedan's three-light DLO is also intact as is the trunk lid's unusually high-set trim highlight, although the taillamps have lost their body color inserts. The wagon variant is 3mm longer than the sedan at 4810mm, its wide, square load aperture appearing to favor practicality over some of its rivals' 'lifestyle' remit. It would also appear the translation from show car to production car has resulted in a loss of surface tension and carefully considered stance, the 508 seeming rather bloated in comparison.
The solitary interior CAD image shows a restrained design, with a wing-like upper dash surface, brushed metallic inserts and dials. The gear selector appears to incorporate an illuminated bevel near its base.
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Nissan has released a series of images of the fourth-generation US market Quest minivan, set to be unveiled at the 2010 LA auto show and due to go on sale in early 2011. Details of the car are scarce, though from what we can see in these images, it appears that the Quest may have grown in all dimensions, particularly in width.
The third generation Quest stood out in the minivan market due to its wave-like shoulder line, and its unorthodox resolution with the base of the A-pillar, hood, and fender. Nissan's images of the new car are darkened in an attempt to give a ‘teaser' feel but from what we can see, the profile of the Quest has retained some of the forward-diving nature of the previous car, but the overall resolution is much calmer. The car also features a striking new DRG. Yet the overall effect appears to have created a much more boxy, typically minivan style vehicle.
Inside, the Quest features some familiar Nissan parts and switchgear, the IP flowing in a double wave from a neat center-console, albeit one that contains a large gear-shifter, which we suspect may obscure some of the infotainment and HVAC controls from the driver's reach.
The Renault DeZir concept is the first Renault Design project led by Laurens van den Acker. When it's officially unveiled at the Paris Motor Show in October it will lay a marker down for the brand's future design direction.
The 4225mm long two-seat sports coupe embodies Renault's new vision of 'simple', 'sensuous' and 'warm' designs. Its form language develops the fluid themes seen in previous Renault concepts but with a greater emphasis on surface than line. "My early inspiration stemmed from the liquid sensation, wave-like movement and contrasts in light associated with certain rippled surfaces," says Yann Jarsalle, lead exterior designer.
Perforated surfaces, rather than hard-edged boundaries, define the head lamp graphic and reappear on the rear deck and rear fender air intakes. Its Audi R8-esque metallic side blade is used to illustrate the aluminum-bodied DeZir's low weight of 830kg.
Asymmetric door openings reveal a cloud-like white leather bench seat, which appears to levitate above a similarly trimmed floor. The floating IP flows into the door cards and center arm rest while Renault's 'touch design' philosophy is still in evidence.
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