Designer Interview: Shao Jingfeng, SAIC
“Chinese consumers are extremely careful when buying cars – they need a dramatic, high-quality experience. Finding designers to design future SAIC and Roewe cars is therefore both a challenge and an opportunity…”
SAIC now consists of two brands, Roewe, which is sold in China, and MG, also sold outside China. I started working for SAIC VW in 1999, when I was responsible for the styling of Roewe, and since 2011, the MG vehicles too. I used to work for the Germans and now I am trying to understand British culture – for MG, this is key. The Roewe design philosophy is ‘emotional rhythm’; its idea is to combine Western design principles with Oriental aesthetic culture, to bring high quality, confident and elegant products. The MG design philosophy we have developed in our UK and Shanghai studios is ‘emotional dynamism’; it’s based on mainstream classic British aesthetics, echoing the emotional demands in the era of artificial intelligence. It conveys a sense of charm and allure.
Now we have sites in London and Birmingham, UK, and Shanghai. Our international studios work together, but the studio in Anting, Shanghai, acts as the headquarters, influencing the others worldwide.
Our vision is to set Roewe as the benchmark of quality in the Chinese automotive industry, and to bring the MG brand back to the world’s mainstream. If we can succeed with MG in China, then we can succeed with it elsewhere. Chinese customers perceive British products as having a very high production quality, so if we can’t bring a luxury element to the new MG brand, people will think it is fake.
Plans to electrify MG include sports cars – they are the essence of MG in the past, and we are trying to carry this over into the future. The electric E-motion concept, launched at the 2017 Shanghai motor show, shows some of the design thinking around the EV platform; it is fairly close to the production car planned for 2020. It shows the essence of the ‘emotional dynamism’ philosophy, maximising three characteristics of being exclusive, emotional and agile. Also, it uses classic two-door sports car proportions, famous in MG’s history, to push MG towards a pure driving direction. We call it the ‘spiritual leader’.
Having a brand like MG in the stable both helps and hinders when you are designing modern cars. The history of MG is our fortune, but it won’t be successful unless it adapts to contemporary aesthetic demands. We always examine MG’s history in an objective way, if we can. The ‘emotional dynamism’ philosophy is the result of our studies.
As far as brand strategy goes, Roewe is more mainstream, more technical, while MG is more fashionable and individual. The Roewe Vision-E concept is the second-generation pure electric product based on SAIC’s all-new EV platform. It is defined as a SCUV – super coupé utility vehicle – which has high road adaptability, a dynamic, low profile and elegant rear-wheel-drive stance, to demonstrate both the performance and luxury of an EV. It shows SAIC’s own EV design philosophy which focuses on mainstream consumers, and our prediction of future design trends.
The Vision-E was not only a concept car: the production version launched in October 2018, Marvel X, maintains more than 90% of the concept’s design. It uses Banma 3.0 [connected operating system] and an AR-HUD [augmented reality head-up display] to bring a convenient and futuristic mobility experience you would never see in a conventional gasoline car.
Contemporary designers not only focus on styling, but on the mobility service and whole experience. As much as the industry itself has changed in China, so has the attitude towards design. Designers have become more and more important in the Chinese automotive industry, they now form a key part of the strategy.
We focus deeply on cultivating young designers. The SAIC Design Challenge has been held for six years, and we find new ideas and talent through the event. Our team also has many designers from other industries and fields, which I think helps bring new thinking to car styling.
Chinese consumers are extremely careful when buying cars – they need a dramatic, high-quality experience. Finding designers to design future SAIC and Roewe cars is therefore both a challenge and an opportunity.
We welcome talented designers from all over the world. Every studio has designers from different countries, and I hope this will continue. It is one of the main reasons we have opened the London studio – MG and Roewe have a global vision, and we want original design and the best talent working for us. London is the world centre of art and culture, it is really important, and home to some of the world’s best designers – Foster, Heatherwick, Hadid, Dyson. It is also a place of world-class design education, with the RCA and Coventry University nearby.
There has recently been a big change to the SAIC global design structure, and we now have four divisions: Roewe Design, MG Design, Global Design and Advanced Design. We are growing fast. The Shanghai studio has 250 designers working on more than 20 projects; it is a big team, but it is not yet big enough. There is a strong creative team in Birmingham, and the Shanghai and Birmingham studios collaborate well. The new central London studio will focus on worldwide avant-garde design and leading creative work: it aims to become one of the world’s best and most creative advanced design studios.
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