Going viral: How design studios in China are coping with the coronavirus

On a sunny day in Shanghai more people are on the streets and shops are slowly beginning to open. However, underlying figures show that for the city, which is largely the epicentre of the Chinese auto design world, things are far from normal. Despite no new cases in Shanghai and rapidly dropping reported rates nationwide, it is not business as usual. The five day moving average of passengers on the Shanghai subway system up to February 18 was 1.13 million a drop of 90.5% over the same period for a year earlier. Following Monday’s announcement, after much speculation, that the Beijing Motor Show originally scheduled for April was postponed, currently with no new date, what is life like in the design studios across China?

Grove Auto, a hydrogen fuel cell startup, has received one of the biggest effects due to having both its headquarters and design studio a good hour’s drive from downtown Wuhan, where the COVID-19 virus started. For head of design Timothy Pilsbury, there was a close run in with the virus thanks to his weekly commute from Shanghai to Wuhan, the last trip being January 14-17. “That very week, before leaving for my trip, I read a brief article in the British media about the virus in Wuhan. At that point there were no alarms raised so I continued with my travel plans. Whilst there, I asked my team about this virus to which they replied it was just pneumonia,” says Pilsbury.

While Pilsbury took an early Lunar New Year break in Japan with his wife the crisis began to emerge and the city of Wuhan, afflicted by a new SARS-like virus, was sealed off from the rest of China. This was later extended to most of the Hubei province. Travel restrictions were implemented across China and many countries began to suspend flights to and from the country, placing restrictions on Chinese visitors. The week long holiday from Chinese New Year should have seen people return to work on February 3 but this was extended out to February 10. However, in reality due to the travel restrictions and fourteen day quarantine requirements in many cities, for people returning from other areas, many people have yet to return.

Daniel Darancou, vice president of design at CH Auto, is stranded in the US, thanks to cancelled flights, thousands of miles away from the company’s studio in Beijing. “CH-AUTO Design and QIANTU Motor EV is in a lock down mode except for business critical personnel,” he says. “I am remote running design operations with WeChat and emails. I would say design is at 20% strength.”

The situation at Grove in Wuhan is worse. Pilsbury’s local colleagues are under lockdown and the office is closed. For those from outside Wuhan they are not allowed to travel there until it is deemed safe – something that is possibly months away. Pilsbury and his wife had to quarantine themselves on return to Shanghai for 14 days due to his trip to Wuhan.

As with other industries the crisis seems to be striking smaller companies more, such as startups like Grove and CH Auto. Larger car producers like Geely have the luxury of design studios around the globe allowing them to take up the slack. “We already have great digital tools to be able to review across the world virtually, so we maybe reduce the travel a little but we can still be connected and look at virtual 3D objects in the same virtual space together in real time,” says Shanghai studio head Guy Burgoyne who goes on to mention that the Shanghai studio is up and running with safety protocols to keep everyone worry-free.

At Icona Design’s Shanghai studio safety precautions include temperature checks on arrival, a now familiar sight across much of China, in addition to a two week quarantine period for anyone from outside Shanghai. In addition the office gets disinfected daily and people wear masks at work. Still though Icona is far from full strength with some designers stuck in other countries due to cancelled flights and others working from home due to quarantine. “Many actually went to pick up their PC and started working from home to be able to continue delivering,” says Samuel Chuffart, Icona’s global design director. Others employees who work in the R&D of manufacturers have been unable to start as they are suppliers or are in quarantine in a hotel nearby.

“Icona is flexible and creative also when it comes to find ways to continue to work and deliver, however of course we are not at normal everyday efficiency but our biggest concern naturally comes for the China economy now being on tick over including car manufacturers that have to struggle with all important cash flow from sales of cars, and soon moreover the general impact on projects which could be delayed,” adds Chuffart.

The Beijing show had been giving studios something to work towards even in such difficult circumstances. “We were at full tilt preparing for the Beijing Motor show and managing well under the circumstances however the announcement of the show being postponed has tempered our zeal…for now,” says Darancou. With no new date, momentum has been lost.

China has, by turn of misfortune, undertaken the world’s biggest trial of working from home. “Our plan is to adopt a sort of virtual team format, as we are somewhat scattered and need to work from home. This is important not only from a work perspective, but also to keep spirits up and to help keep my team connected and supported during this very challenging time,” says Pilsbury. For all studios they appear to be using technology more than ever to allow for a team scattered across China and often the world. WeChat, a Chinese super app which loosely combines the functions of WhatsApp, PayPal, Facebook and more all into one, has been instrumental for many of the studios continuing to work. “On a positive note, technology has enabled distant design operations. Virtual design studios will contribute to the creative development of automotive design,” says Darancou going on to note the crisis may well have brought forward the trend.

We at Car Design News hope for China’s car industry to return to normal, and that Wuhan can recover from the devastation of the virus as soon as possible.