Interior Motives – Spring 2019
In this Issue:
McLaren Speedtail
Peugeot 208
Renault Clio
YFAI XiM20
Tata H2X Concept
Infiniti QX Inspiration
McLaren Speedtail:
The iconic F1 casts a long shadow over McLaren’s hyper-GT, which aims to transport three people plus luggage at great speed, with the driver in the middle. Like a Formula 1 car but with a different mission, the parallel-hybrid Speedtail sets a new benchmark for high-speed comfort, as Rob Melville and his design team explain in detail.
Peugeot 208:
Lower, longer and wider than the outgoing model (although boot space is slightly smaller), the latest 208 has of course been overhauled inside too. Along with new soft-touch materials and rethought storage and stowage (including induction pads for smartphone charging) comes the latest version of the layered i-Cockpit, now available with a two-level holographic head-up display and a central touchscreen of up to 10-inch diameter.
“The new 3D effect is not just entertainment,” says Beurel. “It’s something really important for driver assistance, it is able to help you have the right information at the right layer.”
Renault Clio
Like the Peugeot 208, the latest Clio demonstrates that there’s still life in the traditional supermini segment. The interior shows a more substantial rethink than the exterior; more driver-centric, but again, pared-down. “We have a very pure design; the dashboard is not straight, it is not German-like, and it gives the impression of width to the interior,” says Antoine Génin. “We worked a lot on the architecture, and in order to have the best materials possible in front of the eye and within reach of the hands, with no injected plastic, for instance.”
YFAI XiM20 concept
Yanfeng Automotive Interiors (YFAI) is in the midst of a multi-year project to explore the automotive interior of the future. The name of the overall project, and the resulting series of concept interiors, is ‘Experience in Motion’ (XiM). For 2019. YFAI has introduced the XiM20, a new interior concept for autonomous ride-sharing. The concept presents a couple of different interior environments, some advanced UI ideas and a selection of smart materials.
Tata H2X concept
Despite the runaway success of B-segment SUVs, a niche successfully pioneered by Nissan’s Juke, there’s been relatively little exploration of any opportunity below. With B-sized offerings averaging 4.2 metres in length, SUV-style vehicles in the 3.7 to 4.0 metre range amount to the Suzuki Ignis plus a smattering of jacked-up city cars.
That’s a shortfall that Indian manufacturer Tata aims to address with an upcoming production SUV, previewed by the H2X concept revealed at the Geneva show. It has all the brash style of much bigger SUVs condensed into a 3.85 metre footprint.
Infiniti QX Inspiration concept
The project to create the QX Inspiration took a typical one-year path, building on the work done for the Q Inspiration concept sedan of a year previously. When work began on the QX follow-up in early 2018, some key goals were already clear: “In the interior, we really wanted to talk about space,” recalls Karim Habib. “By using all the potential that an EV can offer, with its flat floor, removing the HVAC from the cabin and putting it under the hood, it completely frees you up in many ways.”
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