Where is the best VW design currently being made? So the further development of the sober, timeless Bauhaus style by Giorgio Giugiaro? With the Golf 1 and Audi 80, the Italian sheet metal cutter radically broke with the round Beetle shapes and created an icon that his awesome successors only carefully changed. But how would the Golf 1 really look radically modern? The answer does not come from Wolfsburg, but from Korea: “I think the Ioniq 5 is a very well-made car with beautiful proportions. Hyundai is reinventing itself in the age of electromobility and digital transformation,” praised none other than Klaus Zyciora. “I know the protagonists”, adds the top design chief of the entire Volkswagen group, “they come from VW”.
With regard to the IAA study VW ID. Life then the praise sounds a little more restrained. Zyciora speaks of washable recycled materials; he says nothing of beautiful proportions. It may well be that some people in Wolfsburg perceive the small car as “clear, reduced and of high quality” (self-promotion). The crux of a strict, puristic design language is that in the end there should be more than a minimalistic building block for the children’s room. “We have consistently geared ID Life to the needs of young target groups,” says brand boss Ralf Brandstätter, “for tomorrow’s customers it is not just about mobility, but even more about what can be experienced in the car.” Aha. What is probably meant is the renunciation of status and prestige. But that doesn’t make an uninspired box into a great box like the Fiat Panda (also from Giugiaro), let alone a classy, simple Apple iCar.
Building block minimalism for young customers
According to Brandstätter, the good news of the IAA study sounds like this: “In 2025, two years earlier than originally planned, a vehicle from the ID family in the small car segment will come onto the market. The starting price should be around 20,000 euros.” Again the car world rubs its eyes in amazement. Why is it taking so long when the Tesla Model 2 at the price mentioned will come two years earlier? In any case, it cannot be due to the planned iron phosphate batteries, which Tesla is already using in the cheapest version of the Model 3. VW speaks of a full development pipeline and busy plants. May be. But then Klaus Zyciora says the redemptive word: “The production car doesn’t have to look like the study.” Pooh.
From the back, the study is a bit reminiscent of Mini. It doesn’t really work independently.
(Photo: VW)
The troubled fair-goers draw hope in the new showroom of the group brand Cupra on Munich’s Odeonsplatz. There is the Urbanrebel study, which looks like a mini Porsche for the racetrack. If you think away from the exaggerated spoiler make-up, you can see a Tesla fighter of the highest quality in your mind’s eye: With a similar flowing, muscular design language without beading and edges, as used by the Californians. A vehicle based on the Group’s new electric front-wheel drive architecture does not have to look cheap, but can also save space in a seductive way.
It is already clear that the corresponding entry-level model from VW wants to take a more angular path. But the further development of the sober, timeless Bauhaus style is a fine art – see above. In any case, the Tesla / Cupra path is easier: no radical break with viewing habits like something in the BMW IAA study Circular, which also plays in the four-meter class.
It works: Cupra boss Wayne Griffith with the new show car Cupra Urbanrebel.
(Photo: Uli Weber / Seat)
So what does a new (fully digital) era and a “new class” (BMW) look like? Hopefully as diverse as possible, at least that’s what Klaus Zyciora promises: “A badge design, i.e. the mere exchange of brand emblems on one and the same model, will no longer exist in the group. That is exactly my job, so that we no longer look like we did with VW Up, the Seat Mii and the Škoda Citigo yourself. ” The beauty competition between the group brands is probably the best remedy against any form of Trabi sadness in the small car segment. VW will have to make an effort not to fall behind the modernity of the previous ID models. And not to become a Cinderella next to the ambitious group subsidiaries Škoda and Cupra, who know how to use their new (design) freedoms very well.