Interview: Ian Callum on the Skye concept

Callum has unveiled its first in-house designed and engineered vehicle, the Skye. It’s a 2+2 adventurer fitted with a 42kWh battery for a targeted range of 170 miles. Whilst it might not look like a sports car, performance is still set to be impressive with an anticipated 0-60mph time under four seconds thanks to a dry weight of 1150kg. More details are set to emerge in spring 2024 when the car will be ready to begin production.

This all-wheel-drive electric off-roader is a far cry from what we envisaged the first car from Callum would look like, so to understand the thinking behind it, we spoke with Director of Design, Ian Callum.

Car Design News: How did you decide which car would be the first from Callum?

Ian Callum: We started nearly five years ago and it was always our intention to make our own products and eventually our own vehicle. We’ve made furniture, we did the Vanquish 25 car, we’ve done whisky bottles, so we wanted a fairly eclectic mix of design objects to get into after designing cars for 40 years. However, the heart is always in cars. The obvious choice between Adam Donfrancesco, head of engineering, and I, was of course a sports car, which I’m sure we will do one day – but we decided to go for a niche market. When we started the company we decided everything we do should be fun and this fits that category well.

It’s a very capable vehicle which is where Adam comes in to make sure that we get the dynamics of this car to work properly. We didn’t want to just do a raw space frame with a set of wheels, we want this to be a little bit more usable on urban roads as well as off road. So, we’ve come up with this car that we feel will do most things well, but the main thing is it will have very real off-road capability.

CDN: Why did you go down the EV route and how did this impact the design?

IC: It’s not so much of a decision these days, it’s almost a default to create an electric car. If it’s not the first it must be close to the first electric car of this kind though. The electric motors are ideal for traversing all sorts of surfaces because they have so much torque so the powertrain is well suited to an all-terrain vehicle.

Range and power of an electric vehicle is very dependent on the length of the wheelbase so we decided the wheelbase length around the best size to achieve the range and performance we wanted to give. So, the wheelbase length was very much dictated by the electric platform and even though it’s quite a short car, the wheelbase is quite long.

CDN: Talk us through the design vision…

IC: For our first total vehicle we wanted something we knew we would be able to manage and build. There’s a balance of sophistication and simplicity without being simplistic. Design wise, it came about because of the nature of the beast. We wanted the wheels planted in each corner which is the best thing for all-terrain performance. Visually as well, having the cabin nestled between the wheels is a good aesthetic.

I wanted the upper half to be quite sporty in its profile and that’s very deliberate because it is a performance vehicle. You expect a touring SUV body on top of this when you think about an off-road vehicle but aerodynamics still played a part in the design even though its top speed won’t be huge.

The lower half describes the vehicle perfectly, it’s quite rugged and it’s open wheel to a certain degree, the juxtaposition of the sporty top is what I like about it. The style of the car has very much been dictated by the wheel clearance. It’s always my default to have cars slammed as low as possible and this is the antithesis of that. You have to give the car a sense of airiness and visual support that allows it to be lifted up without looking fragile or lacking in character. We’ve got lower glass in the doors to allow visibility onto the terrain so that sense of understanding where you’re placed on the surface is really important.

CDN: What is the Skye like inside?

IC: It’s very much a 2+2, it’s not a four seater. The interior design is going to be very simple but not lacking in sophistication. It will be done in a way where there’s a sense of quality and that’s something we’re going through the process of at the moment. Although you’re sitting quite high off the ground it will have quite a sporty seating position so it will feel more like a sports car to sit in than an off-road vehicle.

We will have some form of touchscreen inside for music and navigation but I want to make sure that in terms of functionality there’s a reasonable amount of tactility with the switchgear. I’m a great believer in switchgear being usable without having to look at it for more than a millisecond so to put everything onto a touchscreen would be a mistake for a vehicle like this.

CDN: What was the thought process behind the front end design?

IC: I like to think it’s quite a stylish looking vehicle, the form language is quite soft and it’s got some very distinctive graphics on it, which are akin to a lot of other cars that I’ve worked on. When we got to the front we wanted very slim lamps. Earlier iterations were more utilitarian looking and it met the purpose of the car but I felt it deserved something a bit more stylish. I wanted a contrast between the rugged lower part of the car and a more stylish front end. There’s a lot of sweep in the front glass which I know is going to be challenging for the wiper function but it will give the car a very dramatic look.

CDN: Was there any inspiration from Extreme E vehicles?

IC: We worked on the Prodrive Hunter quite extensively so we understood the dynamics of a car like that. But I think inspiration comes from the nature of the vehicle itself rather than what’s come before. We learnt a lot working on the Hunter but the Skye is not going to be as extreme as that. I think this is very much in the domain of a fun, toy-like vehicle.

CDN: How will technology be integrated into the car?

IC: We’re investigating cameras for wing mirrors but this will be impacted by two factors: the sheer cost of them and the benefit of real mirrors. People are going to use this vehicle for all terrain, so they will probably want real mirrors because of the depth of field. The one thing that cameras will never give us is the same depth of field. When you’re using something like this for off road performance, you need mirrors to understand distances of anything behind you. The option will predominantly be for decent sized real mirrors.