Studio visit: GAC’s new LA facility

Recently, Car Design News attended the opening of GAC’s new Advanced Design Centre near Los Angeles. During the festivities, we were able to speak with Pontus Fontaeus, Design Director of GAC’s newest studio, and Zhang Fan, GAC’s Vice President and Head of Design.

The following is a summary of their comments, lightly edited for this report.

The GAC team at the opening of the new studio near LA

Car Design News: Is this studio a first for GAC in the United States?

Zhang Fan: This studio is the first design studio, but we already have a technology R&D studio in Silicon Valley and we are planning another technology centre in Detroit.

CDN: Two studios in California – could you tell us a bit about the choice of California for your first outposts in America?

Zhang Fan: California is so interesting to us; Silicon Valley, and aerospace industries, but also the culture – the movies, the arts, the lifestyle of the coast. Of course, the hot rods and car culture of Southern California are important to us as well.

Zhang Fan, Vice President, Head of Design at GAC

CDN: GAC has had a presence at the NAIAS in Detroit and also at the recent NADA (National Auto Dealers Association) convention in Las Vegas. We know it is your goal to enter the American market over the next few years. What strengths do you bring to the market and how does this design centre reinforce those strengths?

Zhang Fan: GAC is a young brand, but with a strong manufacturing base, having built cars for FCA, Mitsubishi, Honda and Toyota, all brands with an emphasis on quality manufacture. We also have very strong relationships with tier-one suppliers.

We want to enter the market in America not as a Chinese brand, but as international brand that just happens to be headquartered in China. We are already established in China and Southeast Asia, we want to broaden that market in the next decade.

We see our presence here as an East/West fusion of design, with new ideas coming from this studio. For instance, we think the future of the car may be more in line with the Chinese model than the Western one. In the West, the car developed as a utilitarian machine. In China it was more focused on luxury and human comforts – other vehicles were used for utilitarian purposes. In the age of autonomy, we may see this human-centred approach become pre-eminent in design.

The market in America is changing and we want to be a part of that new era. We missed out on the first century of the automobile, but we want to be an important part of the next century.

Executive Director Pontus Fontaeus and Zhang Fan and the GAC team

CDN: What is the relationship between the Los Angeles design studio and the one in Guangzhou?

Pontus Fontaeus: This Advanced Design Studio in California is seen as having a supportive role rather than being a satellite of our main design centre in China. We are not in competition with other studios. We are a think tank, a small studio that extends the talents of the 250 designers in China. As a small studio, we have to wear multiple hats and be able to multitask. We are confident we will have that team in place.

The studio is open to the community instead of hidden behind walls

CDN: The studio here is very open to the surrounding community- plenty of glass and views to the surrounding city life. Can you explain the difference between your studio and a more traditional design studio?

Pontus Fontaeus: Yes, the studio here was a former bank branch and later, an art gallery. There is an openness to the public that we feel reflects the values of GAC as a company. We don’t feel the need to hide our studio behind high walls.

Also, we hope to have a different kind of open studio where, in the future, we would have – for instance – Sundays where we turn the studio into an art gallery and allow the public to look through the windows at select 3D models and renderings, in order to stimulate awareness of the GAC brand and its design flair.

Chairman Wang tours the newest GAC concept car with the VR headset

CDN: Does the design of the studio reflect a new kind of work culture here?

Pontus Fontaeus: Absolutely. We want to be human-centred, focused on the wellbeing of our team members. The atmosphere and furnishings of this studio are meant to create a positive and creative work environment.

We are a digital studio here, with no traditional design development processes like clay modelling or large airbrushed renderings. We take advantage of advanced technologies such as computer modelling, VR, and eventually AI, to help us in our design process.

We know, of course, that we will need to work very hard, put in some long hours, and produce new ideas.

I have told our leadership that I will be the “Official Troublemaker”, challenging old ideas and putting forth new ones.

The studio you see here, as handsome as it is, is a vessel, the ideas that will come forth are the most important. We know that not every idea can be incorporated into a future vehicle, but we are confident that industry-changing ideas will emerge from this studio, as befitting GAC’s importance to the future of the automobile.