[Shanghai Auto Show] China's Car Market Now Buys on Looks

During the Shanghai Auto Show, we talked with several veteran car designers.

"Car buyers no longer use a car to show what they have achieved. They use it to show who they are," said Li Yujing, a senior analyst at the market research firm Mintel. Mintel surveyed 2,318 Chinese internet users aged 20-49 who drive and plan to buy a car within the next 12 months. Exterior styling came out as the design element they care about most, with more rear-seat space second.

Another survey found that among young buyers, design ranks second for those born in the 1980s and first for those born in the 1990s.

In other words, emotional wants such as design and fashion are about to be let loose on the car market.

Which explains why Dai Lei, general manager of Infiniti China, told the "Design Night" event held before this year's Shanghai Auto Show opened: "Win on looks and you win the world." Mintel forecasts that passenger car sales in China will grow from 19.7 million in 2014 to 27.6 million within five years. Will putting designers on stage help each brand sell more cars?

During this year's show, QDaily interviewed a series of designers: Shiro Nakamura, chief creative officer of Nissan; Ian Callum, global design director of Jaguar; Joel Piaskowski, design director of Ford Europe; Alfonso Albaisa, global executive design director of Infiniti; Samuel Chuffart, design director of the design firm ICONA; and Fabio Filippini, design director of the design firm Pininfarina.

Here is what they told us. Their thinking may shape the car you end up buying.

How will autonomous driving and other new technology change the way you drive?

Q: How will virtual reality and sensor technology affect the design language of future cars? When designers develop a model with autonomous driving or other smarter technology, how does their thinking differ from before?

Shiro Nakamura, chief creative officer of Nissan

Shiro Nakamura: Autonomous driving affects the interior more than anything, because interior design also covers how person and car communicate with each other.

Today you operate the car mostly as a driver. In the future the car will be like a robot. I will give commands to this robot, and our role will be to monitor it. We need to be able to know what the car is going to do next. That is one form of future interaction between person and car, and it is the foundation. As things move in this direction, we will design our interiors differently too.

For example, when we develop an autonomous car, a steering wheel may not be necessary at all. We will also have to rethink the various instruments, gauges and screens. But I want to be clear that an autonomous car is a different idea from so-called self-driving trains or subways. On those, the route from A to B is fixed and cannot be changed at will. With an autonomous car, when I go from one place to another, I may want to stop along the way or change the route, and making that fully work will take much more thought and development.

Joel Piaskowski, design director of Ford Europe

Joel Piaskowski (Ford): If we divide autonomous driving into four levels, with full autonomy as level four, we are now only somewhere between level one and level two. Imagine a vehicle that drives itself completely. Its interior would need no steering wheel or other driving controls. You would simply type in or say your destination, and the car would do the rest. But until we get there, the driver remains the main controller of the vehicle, and semi-autonomous technology serves as an aid. Interior design has to fully meet those practical needs, and we can also add connected-car technology to improve the driving experience further.

Ian Callum, global design director of Jaguar

Q: Jaguar Land Rover has introduced a 360-degree virtual urban windscreen and virtual follow-the-leader navigation. How will these new technologies affect the design process?

Ian Callum (Jaguar): New technology has very little effect on the design process. Besides modern processes, we also use some digital methods. True, technology gives designers a great deal of freedom, and systems such as gesture, voice and touch controls are worthwhile. But for me personally, the biggest challenge is to bring information, in-car entertainment and connected-car technology into the car while still keeping the driver comfortable and safe.

Q: When a new car is to take on new technology, how do Jaguar's designers work with the engineering department?

Ian Callum: Jaguar's design, engineering and R&D departments work in the same building and cooperate very closely, so they talk to each other in real time. Engineering and design also discuss a very wide range of things: wheels, seats, headlights, materials and so on. Sometimes designers have an idea for a seat, a wheel or a headlight and ask engineering whether it can actually be built. Sometimes engineering brings new technology, such as the connected-car concept that links smartphone, vehicle and internet, and asks design whether it can work.

For example, to a designer, the lower the hood, the better it looks. But traffic safety rules require the hood to sit several centimeters above the engine. We have to strike a balance, and engineering made that possible by placing an airbag beneath the hood. Another example: designers want bigger wheels that look more powerful, but big wheels add weight to the whole car. So we turn to engineering and work out ways to cut as much weight as possible without losing that look of power.

Q: Do car designers now have to think more about internet technology?

Samuel Chuffart (ICONA): Yes. Technology is moving very fast, and people are now always "connected." But precisely because technology moves so quickly, I think car designers may need to slow down in chasing it, stop and think about what drivers really want, and ask how we can make the "right car" for them. That matters more than a "good car." We have to find a balance. People sometimes keep a car longer than a technology cycle lasts. Replacing an iPhone will always be much easier than replacing a car. But you have to stay alert to connected technology.

If I had to name keywords for the design language of the future, I would pick three: aggressive, sociable, communicated.

What do young Chinese buyers actually want from design?

Q: SUVs are very popular now, and Jaguar has grown very fast in China in recent years. As a designer, how do you read what consumers want from car design?

Ian Callum (Jaguar): Jaguar's models are sold worldwide, so our designers weigh the markets and consumer demands of the Americas, Europe and China at the same time. What we see is one broad trend across the world: the differences between age groups are bigger than the differences between regions. 25-year-olds around the world actually do very similar things. On details such as interior materials and colors, we take the tastes and requirements of buyers in each region into account. China, of course, is a big enough car market that Jaguar treats it on its own. For a luxury brand like Jaguar, keeping a pure British identity and character matters more than pleasing consumers.

Q: As a designer, how do you balance your own inspiration against market demand? Do you ever design something for the market that you would rather not do?

Ian Callum (Jaguar): Yes, I make judgments like that all the time. My first task is to protect Jaguar's brand values, which are high performance and sportiness. So if someone asked me to design a very conservative, very practical car, I would flatly refuse. My team and I follow the latest changes in the world closely, picking up the newest information and fashion trends from around the globe online. Personally, I think changing a model's colors or materials works better than overhauling the whole body. So we do not cater to consumers blindly. We stick to our own thinking and judgment.

Our designers are very eager to learn about the latest trends in Chinese art and design, and about Chinese consumers' tastes.

Q: What is Ford thinking about in interior design for young Chinese consumers?

Joel Piaskowski (Ford): We have always studied what Chinese consumers need, including how they use their cars. Some drive themselves, some ride in the back, and some do both. When we were designing the Ford Taurus, for example, we designers assumed young buyers would want a sportier car. Market research showed they actually preferred something more comfortable, quiet and "grand."

How have Chinese tastes in car design changed overall?

Fabio Filippini (Pininfarina): Chinese consumers have changed a great deal over the past 10 years. They used to care a lot about the front and rear of a car, or only about those. So cars on the Chinese market tended to have a very prominent face and "hips," while the beltline and the rest of the body were often neglected. As China's car market has matured, and especially with today's young buyers born in the 1990s, people have started to notice finer details such as the beltline, the grille and how smoothly the lines flow. To me, that is the most obvious change.

Fabio Filippini, design director of Pininfarina

The DX7, designed by Pininfarina for Soueast Motor, on display at the Shanghai Auto Show

Joel Piaskowski (Ford): Chinese consumers used to be fairly conservative across the board, but that is changing. A sizable share now prefer bold, dynamic designs, readily embrace new technology features, and want design that represents the most advanced ideas. At the other extreme, there is a group who prefer understated, restrained cars but demand extremely high quality. For them, it matters a great deal that design and craftsmanship deliver an interior of the very highest quality.

Q: Do these differences in taste come down to age, or to occupation?

Joel Piaskowski: That's a very interesting question. In many cases the differences come down to age. Older buyers are more likely to prefer comfortable, quiet, understated cars, while younger buyers are more open to cutting-edge design and new technology. For them, it is a way of expressing themselves.

There is also another situation: the owner and driver is young, but the parents pay for the car and often ride in the back, so they care more about comfort. The two generations want different things from the car, which makes for an interesting tug-of-war, and both sides shape the final decision.

Should different markets get different design styles?

Q: Your work, Mr. Nakamura, has many very strong styles, including the GT-R, Juke and 370Z you designed at Nissan. Do such strong styles mean fewer people may accept them? When you led these designs, did you face pressure from the market or elsewhere?

Shiro Nakamura (Nissan): I would say that a 10% share of a market is already a large share. We don't have to sell cars to everybody. If we tried, we would have to cater to everyone's needs, which would mean fighting head to head, and very fiercely, with every other brand on the market. If 10% of people are deeply impressed by our cars and truly love them, that is far better than everyone saying "this car is just okay."

Q: Infiniti is a relatively young luxury brand. How did it settle on the family look shared across its models? What is the significance of launching the Q80 Inspiration at this show?

Alfonso Albaisa, global executive design director of Infiniti

Alfonso Albaisa (Infiniti): When Chinese consumers think of luxury cars, the three big German brands come to mind first, and of course they are all excellent. But Infiniti is not a German company, nor a British one, nor an Italian one. We are an international brand that blends Eastern and Western backgrounds, and we look at and understand life from two different angles. As car designers, we want to bring romantic ideas into design. Infiniti's double-arch grille, for example, was inspired by an arch bridge and its reflection on the water. So design must have beauty as well as a sense of technology. Infiniti came late to the luxury car market, and our goal is to be its "challenger." The Infiniti Q80 Inspiration shows where our future models are heading. You will see many of its design details carried over into more models, in both interiors and body lines.

Q: In your view, what makes an Infiniti GT a true thoroughbred?

Alfonso Albaisa (Infiniti): In designing this GT concept car, we gave it a beautiful side, but we also hoped people would notice something dark in it, a bit of moodiness. We took that into account in our final choice too. The Infiniti QX70 looks like a handsome young man, and inside it really does have a man's emotional side.

Q: You designed both generations of the Jaguar XF. How do you carry the first generation forward while also breaking from it? How do you make sure the second generation succeeds as well?

Ian Callum (Jaguar): The two generations of the XF were launched in completely different circumstances, so they have completely different missions. The first XF was more of a sporty luxury sedan. The job of the second is to add practicality while meeting market demand. The all-new XF and the all-new Jaguar XE are positioned differently, and the XE suits younger buyers better. As a designer, adding practicality to the all-new XF was a very big challenge, because what I am really good at is designing coupes and sports cars. But my team and I did it.

The all-new Jaguar XF on display at the Shanghai Auto Show

The all-new Jaguar XE on display at the Shanghai Auto Show

What should Chinese car designers do?

Q: What do you think of Chinese car designers today?

Ian Callum (Jaguar): As Jaguar grows in China, our design team wants to spend more time here and learn more about Chinese culture. We have noticed a trend: many Chinese designers used to imitate Western design, but now they are coming back to their own. We have seen many excellent, highly distinctive local designs.

Q: Do you have any advice or warnings for young Chinese designers?

Ian Callum (Jaguar): The first piece of advice is to work hard. The second is to look at things from many angles, as a global designer: compete hard, learn what makes different countries different, and develop a global outlook. If you get the chance to live in another country, learn its culture and build up different experience, that is also very valuable. I believe China will certainly produce some outstanding car designers in the next 10 years. Once today's students grow up, they should be able to compete on the same stage as the best designers from other countries.

Q: At this Shanghai Auto Show, at both Nissan and Infiniti, we saw work by Chinese design teams, such as the Vision GT concept car shown at Infiniti's Design Night a couple of days ago. Were you surprised that a Chinese team produced something this good? What do you think of Chinese design teams now, and will they take more of the lead in future design decisions, including at Nissan and Infiniti?

The Infiniti Vision GT concept car, whose lead designer is Liu Zheming of the Beijing design center

Shiro Nakamura (Nissan): That they produced such good work so quickly did exceed my expectations. I was not shocked so much as pleasantly surprised.

Ten years ago we set up an office in Shanghai. It was not very big, and it mainly did market and consumer research. Five years ago we moved from Shanghai to Beijing and began hiring a range of talent, mostly local Chinese, along with people from Taiwan and some designers from Europe. It is a young group with great potential, drawn from different cultures. I can look at their work directly and pick out the most talented designers myself.

The Beijing team serves more than the Chinese market. We hire Chinese designers and local Chinese talent because we want them to contribute to our global business and global products. The Chinese team means the same to Nissan as our teams in the United States, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. They should not be treated differently.

Other Things

Q: Have you watched the traffic on Chinese roads? How does it strike you compared with other countries?

Joel Piaskowski (Ford): Many places have traffic jams, including big cities like Los Angeles. Congestion wastes a great deal of time on the road. When autonomous driving becomes reality, people's lives can become faster and more convenient, and they will be able to make better use of the time they spend in the car.

Q: This time Infiniti has put forward a family design philosophy built on the aesthetics of "conflict." How do you see the difference between "conflict" and "contradiction"?

Alfonso Albaisa (Infiniti): To me, a "contradiction" is two elements put together that have not been reconciled, or not reconciled well. A "conflict" has been worked into harmony: details that seem to clash are fused perfectly into one whole. My father was an architect, and he once told me that Spanish architecture was his favorite. I asked him why. He said: "Truly Spanish buildings start out with no grand idea at all, only one purpose: get the building up. So their architecture is very purposeful. But during construction, or later in use, many problems turn up that have to be worked out again, and that produces many works of art that seem to clash yet are very beautiful."

Q: As a car designer, what do you find most appealing about this industry? Is there anything you hate about it?

NEO, the small electric concept car ICONA showed at the Shanghai Auto Show

Samuel Chuffart (ICONA): The most appealing thing, I would say, is the "next one." We always seem to be thinking about the future, dreaming about the future, even living in the future. As for what I dislike about this industry: I am a workaholic. In the past three months I have had only one day off. If I had to name something I don't like, it is that I like this industry too much.