Design Development: Volkswagen Arteon

“We created our vision for this car when we presented, two years ago in Geneva, our show car,” says head of Volkswagen design Klaus Bischoff, referring to the Sport Coupé Concept GTE. “It was kind of like a statement for a new design approach that we wanted to create, and when the [show] car was presented, we had tremendous positive feedback and it was the spark and the go-ahead for this project. We already had this car at a certain stage as a serious product, but hadn’t started the industrialisation.”

Though it’s the upmarket member of the Passat family, the Arteon ‘gran turismo’ – as Volkswagen classes it – is positioned differently to the outgoing Passat CC ‘four-door coupé’. “The CC was the same wheelbase as a Passat, and was a lot more cramped,” says Bischoff. “This car features a lot more interior space, you don’t have a headroom problem and getting inside and out is easier, so it is a lot about comfort and functionality. With the huge tailgate you have fantastic access to a huge trunk area, so the versatility, the functional ability of the car is putting it into another segment, and from my point of view the design is pushing it into another territory. That’s why we couldn’t call it CC, so it needs to have a new name.”

The briefing for the Arteon was clear: “we wanted to do something which is a huge leap forward in design language and elegance,” Bischoff states. “And so to give that car reason, it has to have a strong visual impact and very strong identity; that is why we came up with this standing [upright] grille, that very low bonnet, the integration of the headlights into the grille.”

He refers to the “base layer,” or the car’s fundamental proportions, noting that “to get the proportions right, we have a very intense process.” The very first proportion model was not successful, he says: “We kept the wheel size of the Passat, we kept also the track of the Passat and we just elongated it, and the roof was a little bit lower. And then we said no, it’s not working, we need the wider track, we need larger wheels and we need to push the bonnet down.”

The active pedestrian impact system allowed for a lowering of the bonnet, Bischoff explains, while the larger wheels and wider track gave a better stance in combination with the now very low-slung, but long roofline. He points too to “the treatment of the surfacing – more depth, more sharpness – and we have this line that comes from over the bonnet into the sill of the side, and then we have, from the cut-line of the bonnet over the headlights, one horizontal line that runs along the whole side elongating [it]. All of this together – and the flanks on the rocker panel in plastic and metal – is helping to create the feeling of a low-slung limousine. But it is not an optical illusion; it is low, sitting low, and we did everything to create this profile.”

The Sport Coupé Concept GTE tested how far this approach could be taken. The subsequent design for the production Arteon “was decided shortly after the presentation of the show car, so we were able to implement some of the topics we had shown,” says Bischoff, “like the shutline from the side on the bonnet, the integration of the grille into the headlights, the tailgate design and this sharp, crisp line with the movement at the rear fender – all this came to life.”

Indeed, Tobias Sühlmann’s exterior design was little-changed between concept and production. The large clamshell bonnet had to be modified due to legislative requirements for pedestrian impact protection, meaning the tip of it has been pushed back to make space for a separate plastic strip in front – and that wasn’t all: “the way the wheelarch was cut out was a little bit different – we had to change it for production tooling reasons,” says Bischoff of the Arteon’s bonnet now tracing the outline of the wheelarch eyebrow instead of cutting through it like the concept, “and as far as I remember, the taillight design was a bit different, but really not much. It’s not often that we can come so close[ly, from a concept] to reality.”

The execution of the final exterior is very clean and crisp, “but it is very sculpted, not flat,” Bischoff stresses. “If you look from the three-quarter front, you have a vertical line that goes through the bonnet, another line that comes from the side, and they both pinch into this bar that sits in front of the bonnet. There’s a vertical connection to the wheel, so each line is talking to another one. Behind everything there is a reason and a mathematical connection.”

‘Elegance’ trim swaps the [yellow] R-Line’s sportiness for luxury

“One last point on the exterior: when you look into the line that goes from the front fender into the side, and then it tensions down to the second door and comes out again, there’s a movement in the plan view of that line that is very visible from three-quarter front, and very visible from the rear. But in side view, you literally just see the light is different, the line is horizontal. It was not easy to treat that, without a dropping line or rising line, but it is very elegant.”

The new-look face of the Arteon is an obvious talking point, but it’s not the new face of Volkswagen as such. “That is definitely a top-of-the-line identity – part of the elements you are going to see in other cars as well, but not something redefining the brand,” says Bischoff. “You don’t want this spreading all over the portfolio. Then it’s not exclusive anymore.”

The front-end design came early in the programme, he says. “We had some restraints from our engineering colleagues, as we came up with a very unique integration of the grille elements into the headlights, in a new three-dimensional treatment, in combination with the DRL and blinker – that idea we followed, and tried to fight it through, and in the end we succeeded. There were at the very beginning some alternatives, but they were not as convincing. From an early stage we had that idea of this design element and we went straight through.”

Sport Coupé Concept GTE’s models, sketches and interior styling bucks

However, while the exterior design of the Arteon has been little changed from that of the Sport Coupé Concept GTE, the concept’s interior was more experimental; very much that of a show car. “There’s a compromise to bring the car to market,” says senior interior designer Peter Mikulak. “Of course the concept was pushed to more extremes – but the proportions are not that far, I would say.” Following on from our close look at that show car [IM: Summer 2015], we talk about how the project evolved into the finished vehicle.

“In general, it was a very interesting project,” says Mikulak. “Passat and Arteon ran in certain parallels so I was working on both, while we also did the show car. So it was a very intensive project; these three cars all at the same time. Arteon is much more sporty than Passat, but also elegant, so we tried to take those elements you saw on the show car. For us, it was all about the horizontality, in that it shows the width, and also a little bit of driver orientation, so connecting both worlds together: elegance and sportiness.”

Mikulak’s sketches show the theme for the interior architecture of this new vehicle. The dashboard itself is revised from that of the current B8-series Passat, albeit with different materials and colours, but the door trims, seats and other elements are new, while adaptations have also been made to suit the Arteon’s different proportions and character. To fit with its higher shoulderline, flatter glasshouse and lower ride height, the centre console “is higher, compared with the previous [B7] Passat and CC,” says Mikulak, “which brings more premium qualities, and also sportiness, because of the angles. And the orientation of the dashboard, the top, it’s slightly driver-oriented; the centre of the peak is behind the steering wheel.”

Though a high level of technology is incorporated into the cockpit – including the large glass central touchscreen (up to 9.2in) and a head-up display – the overall effect remains very clean and uncluttered. “This was also important, because we wanted to get rid of too many lines, too many breaks, keep it as simple as possible,” explains Mikulak.

“The air vent is the main design element. Actually, it was the first time in this car that we treated the air vent as a functional decorative element: before it was always like a dashboard bit, three or four air vent holes, and now for the first time it is integrated. It’s both decorative and functional.” The full-width, sweeping horizontal lines of the vents echo the design of the front grille, giving the cabin the same visual impression of width.

“We wanted to put everything in the production car, and that was a lot of hard work – discussion with the engineers, and also the budget for the project,” laughs interior designer Letian Guo. “I dreamt of having this interior [from the concept] into production as well, of course, but not every wish comes true!” adds Bischoff.

“First of all we need to cope with the technical tasks: if you create such a light dashboard [as in the concept] you have the risk of strong reflections in the windshield, especially if the windshield is at such a fast angle, so this was one reason we had to tone it down into the darker area. From the materials side, we also heard from our customers that too light, too bright, we create problems with jeans when you’re sitting on it, and you have to have anti-soiling, so in the end, the decision was for relatively conservative colouring.” Mikulak sighs: “We’re always fighting for light colours, but go around and see how light colours are mirroring the glass! You will not see anything outside…”

Though more recent Volkswagen projects such as the I.D. Concept have involved extensive use of VR in the design process, the Arteon programme was more traditional: “We were working the classical way: sketching and clay. Now, we’re switching more to data models, but at that time, it was really the clay models – there was no VR,” says Guo. Bischoff notes, however, that whilst Volkswagen is moving towards a more digitalised design process, “when you feel that you are coming to a certain border in the digital process, you need to go back to reality, to model, and if you can’t see [that] it’s right in the data, even with VR technology, you need to print it out or mill it or whatever, then take a knife, or scratch, and sculpt it.”

Mikulak says that the big capacitive touchscreen and gesture controls mark a step forward for Volkswagen and that integrating the technology has been successful. “The gesture control is really cool!” Although, Bischoff adds, more cautiously: “We have gesture controls, but only some features – we don’t want to irritate, but to go step by step and get used to it, let’s see what reactions we fetch.”

The air vent had to be modified for final production; “what I like is that the design theme was still there,” concludes Mikulak. “The proportion has to change because it has to go with the package, all these requirements… but the theme is always there. I’m proud – it was not an easy job – and I think how we designed together with the engineers, how we executed it, it’s well done. Also, I think this classical theme with the new technology, this combination is good.”

Although the basic interior design now dates back some years, given its roots in the Passat programme, Mikulak believes “the theme is so clean and so strong that even now it feels fresh. It’s timeless, it’s very clean, very simple.” We agree.

DIMENSIONS

Length: 4862mm

Width: 1871mm

Height: 1427mm

Wheelbase: 2841mm

Volkswagen Arteon

Vehicle type Production / large fastback

Head of Volkswagen design Klaus Bischoff

Exterior designer Tobias Sühlmann

Head of interior design Tomasz Bachorski

Senior interior designer Peter Mikulak

Project started / completed undisclosed

Launch Geneva / March 2017