BMW design manager: – Yes, I know what is happening in Norway
This article was first published in Finansavisen Motor.
Villa d’Este, Italy: – Yes, I know what is happening in Norway. It’s “just” about electric cars. We just have to produce enough, says BMW Group’s Dutch design chief Adrian van Hooydonk smiling as we look at the i4 Concept, BMW’s gorgeous concept car that should have been launched in Geneva in March 2020, just when the pandemic broke out.
However, the pandemic and chip shortage have not stopped BMW on its way to overtaking Mercedes-Benz as the world’s largest luxury car brand in 2021. Now the i4 is already in place in the Norwegian electric car market in production version, along with iX, cars that signal the electric future of BMW.
Provocative success
When Chris Bangle left his post as the BMW Group’s chief design officer in 2009, many drew a sigh of relief. After the most radical design revolution in BMW’s history, many believed that Bangle had destroyed BMW “forever”. However, the sales figures showed something completely different. They went straight up.
When a new boss was to be hired, it was Bangle’s closest associate, Adrian van Hooydonk, who got the job. Van Hooydonk was the one who had designed most of the cars and the details Bangle had been silenced for, but which the market had embraced. He had worked in design at BMW since 1992, after graduating from Delft and the Art Center College of Design in Switzerland.
– Chris was very inspiring to me as a young designer, and he gave me great freedom to challenge the “boundaries” of BMW design. It was not a goal in itself to be controversial, but to create change, to break boundaries and conventions, van Hooydonk told us when he had taken over over ten years ago.
New directions
The real break with traditional, classic BMW design came with the Z9 Gran Turismo concept in 1999. The concept car that debuted in Frankfurt introduced the new rear and was far more sculpted than previous BMW models.
– We wrote about the entire design language of BMW, but that was also our task. In retrospect, it has probably turned out that we were somewhat right in which direction we wanted the brand to go at that time at the beginning of the 2000s.
Ten years later, it was van Hooydonk himself who was to take on the role of conductor for the changes in the 2010s and 2020s, not least with the launch of BMW’s i-models.
– The idea was that our i-models would handle experimentation, new technology, new design. First with the i3 and i8, with a new design language with a cleaner design that signaled zero emissions.
Towards the end of the decade, we moved on. First with extreme Vision Next 100 in 2016 and iVision Dynamics in 2017. Now we see that this continues into the iX and i4, and the design of the i-cars has influenced the design of the traditional BMW models.
And with new concept cars and production models, the design team has really challenged the perception of what a BMW front with the “kidney grille” should or can look like. With accompanying expressions of displeasure from the arch-enthusiasts. And ever-increasing sales figures.
Maximum reduction
– Now we are working to get the design language cleaner and cleaner. More precisely. Our customers want quality, and precision in design signals that the product is well thought out and well built.
– We try to achieve results by getting lines and few elements. In the future, it will also be an important part of how we make the cars circular, so that as much as possible can be recycled, not only as materials, but as components in new cars. We want the design of the future to be more durable and not change so often.
– But is not there a risk of losing identity and soul on the way to a minimalist design?
– Definitely. That’s why it’s so difficult, and harder the more you go into the issue. It is still limited for people to choose BMW and they like the design of the products. Therefore, the collaboration between design, development, engineers and model makers, production technicians and all disciplines is closer and better than ever. But we must keep a soul in the brand. A modern soul who should also be able to stand up to the 2030s, van Hooydonk argues.
Visions
He admits that one of the most exciting things about the job is that no one knows for sure where the development will go. But one must make choices now as a consequence far in the future.
That’s why it’s always interesting to talk to designers. They live in the future, with issues eight to ten years ahead, while presenting current products and
– We work with products for the future, and try to make sure the future looks very good. It will be completely different from the present, naturally enough. We feel that they must be far more sustainable, they must be able to be recycled, and we must learn to build cars from recycled materials. Vision Circular is a step in the direction where we have concretized the thoughts in a small, electric city car for four for the future.
Even though it is a small and sensible car, it should also create feelings and experiences for the customers. Hooydonk himself is inspired by the classic cars around us at Villa d’Este, as well as by art, product design, architecture, fashion design and other things he likes.
– The choice to buy a BMW is based on emotions. We will continue to create earlier as more than features, concludes by Hooydonk before we sneak in and final questions.
– Which era in car design is your favorite era?
– The future!