Mobility should be fun

Typologies that diverge from the norm do not often succeed, at least not on first try. Urbanisation has led to swelling support for new mobility solutions, and indeed use of the term ‘mobility’ itself. Even car companies are thinking beyond the car as we know it to embrace autonomous riding, micromobility and indeed microcars.

We have been here before, but not to this degree. And not with the tools that designers have at their disposal, which allow initial concepts to be built out and tested in very little time. All things point toward a genuine opportunity for alternative solutions to hit the market, and importantly, stick around.

That is the view of the team at Granstudio, which for the past decade has – both consciously and subconsciously – been forecasting trends, gathering market insight and building a deep understanding of what can and should be done in this new space. 

“We’ve been doing this kind of research since day one,” says Lowie Vermeersch, founder and creative director at Granstudio. “Through internal research and from working with clients over more than ten years, we are continually exploring what's going on with mobility in society. We cannot invent the future, but we can help shape it.”

Rampant urbanisation and digitalisation have reshaped how people live, play and travel. The automotive response thus far has been to riff on the general theme of a car, with incremental updates or adjustments here and there – broadly speaking. 

The team at Granstudio suggests that more of a leap must be made to truly uncover something ‘new’, perhaps merging existing typologies or carving an entirely new segment altogether. Wouter Haspeslagh, chief mobility designer at Granstudio, describes it as “a mental jump” to break the cycle.

As it happens, trends are converging to a point where experiments might well take off this time. “As much as we are forecasting and analysing all of these inputs, we also quite literally feel that times are changing,” muses Haspeslagh. “There's more openness to try different things, and particularly in a European context. From a technological level, battery density has improved massively, which means you can create smaller vehicles without compromising on range. With electric motors too, the type of power you can get from a very physically small motor is crazy.”

Technology is obviously a key enabler for progress, but there has also been a mindset shift among legacy brands. This is very different to even the recent past. Vermeersch recalls at one point that talk of mobility was like “swearing in a church” for some car brands, “an ugly word.” Not so anymore. “Things have changed,” he says. “It’s about having fun with it, so societal changes and new technologies fundamentally enable us to create better, more meaningful experiences.”

But new solutions must do more than simply “makes sense” on paper. They should stir an emotional response from the prospective user and ultimately be desirable. “That’s the golden line that connects all of this,” says Vermeersch. “It's always been about creating something that people really feel attracted to, and like to be seen in. That's the test that each project should pass because otherwise it becomes number driven. Emotion is core to making these new approaches work, rather than simply calculating how mobility can be better by the numbers.”

How has this manifested through recent projects? Not by simply taking the car and shrinking it. The team has considered everything from ride-on and stand-on solutions to even ‘mobile gear’ like motorised suitcases. “We are looking at all options; everything between a shoe and an aeroplane,” says Haspeslagh.

One of Granstudio’s recent projects envisioned a series of slow-moving sculptures that operate like trams in busy cities. Weaving and gliding through the city and formed with glass and materials that are sympathetic to the city’s surroundings, they allow users to hop on and off in quiet comfort. The team also refers to a trio of solutions by VIDA, the electric brand of Hero MotorCorp, that can dovetail for end-to-end mobility. A motorised backpack – NEX1 – can be worn or ridden on like a scooter is the most compact option for the very shortest leg of a journey.

NEX2 is a ride-on scooter optimised for storage and longer journeys. The main idea is to be efficient and affordable, but also safer and more empowering than an e-scooter or pedal-assisted e-bike. Again, desirability is fundamental. The third pillar is a microcar of sorts that has been designed to feel like a conventional A-segment vehicle. This enclosed quadricycle is sturdy, well-appointed and does not rattle around like a tin can. Drivers would feel safe, relaxed, and importantly proud of riding in it.

“We don't really like the traditional diminutive aspect of microcars. To design a microcar we took the layout of a Porsche Macan to create something with the proportions we are used to: the position of a pillar, the thickness of the door, how far the window is from you. All of these elements that give you a feeling of safety,” explains Vermeersch. “When you sit inside, it gives a totally different feeling to a standard microcar where you sit against the door and feel a little unsafe. It’s taking all the goodies of a car and applied it to a much smaller footprint.”

Microcars don't have to look like refrigerators, and thus can be more aerodynamic and energy efficient. They can travel further and go faster than boxy quadricycles. “Blocky microcars are the worst for aerodynamics. They’re a cube,” jokes Vermeersch, “whereas this can also go into the suburbs and even in rural areas where research shows that people are increasingly underserved by public transport.”

Much of the exploration into new typologies stems from Granstudio’s ability to translate market trends into tangible experiments (and experiences) in rapid time. DigiPHY enables the team to first test whether a design makes sense in the semi-virtual world, before building prototypes for physical testing. “It’s important to capture this insight, but also to incorporate it quickly enough to use it to your advantage when designing for example autonomous ride experiences,” says Haspeslagh.

Previous attempts at new vehicle typologies also overlooked – or at least misjudged – the user experience. “If you were to do an excel sheet, I’m sure it would all add up, but often those products did not deliver something desirable for the user,” says Vermeersch. “With DigiPHY, we can identify the user experience we want to revise and translate that vision into reality through rapid XR prototyping. It really is one of the core processes of being a designer, finding something that becomes real and expresses its true value.”

Ultimately, the team sees new opportunities to explore and is not giving lip service to the buzzword of ‘future mobility’. And although that term has generally been used away from the automotive space, Vermeersch pushes back on the notion that these are two separate fields. “Mobility is not an antidote to the car,” he affirms. “The car is central and remains the fundamental pillar of our studio. We want to make this topic fun to car designers and enthusiasts, because mobility really should be fun.”