Car Design News: Car culture in China: a nascent car culture or an emerging car culture, but a culture nonetheless. Share some of your thoughts about what you see growing here, because it’s an interesting moment.

Javier Garcia-Gallardo: It’s very interesting to talk about car culture because all designers grow up following different car cultures. If I ask you what cars come to your mind when I tell you American car culture or Japanese car culture or European car culture, there are definitely a number of icons that pop in your head, and probably those icons are very similar cars to what most of people in this room today think.

CDN: Yes, absolutely.

JGG: But when it comes to China car culture, I believe it’s still emerging at the moment. If I ask you what the car culture icons are for China, that would be a difficult question to answer. It’s probably a question that we will be able to answer maybe 10, 20 years from now, not really at this moment.

I hope that in the future people look at these cars as the icons that define Chinese car culture

So I see that it’s a culture that is growing, emerging, being built. I think it’s a culture that has suffered a lot from the economical movements in the world and I personally see a lot of homogeneity in the products hitting the market. But I believe we are going to go out of this very strongly in China, and we will be seeing more and more brand differentiation and some of these future icons of China car culture for all of us.

CDN: That’s what your job is: to create these future icons. It’s too early to tell and we have to wait till these things bed in, but is there a particular typology emerging from China?

JGG: I think the car culture and icons don’t have necessarily to do with typology. I think have to do with really a good design. And when I say 10, 20 years from now, I don’t mean that these cars will be designed 10-20 years from now. I think that the market and the world will be able to truly appreciate [what we are doing today].

At Zeeker, we are very mindful of this. We are trying to redefine a segment every time we do a new car, from the 001 to the Mix to the new 9X. We are entering a new market segment and trying to push the boundaries with the tools that we have. For me as a designer, I hope that in the future some young kid who is passionate about cars looks at these cars as the icons that define Chinese car culture.

CDN: Javier, it’s always a pleasure to speak to you. Thank you so much for joining us.

JGG: Thank you, James.

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