The solar-roofed Smart Forvision plug-in concept
There have been a number of vehicle previews ahead of the Frankfurt Auto Show that have been built upon plug-in drivetrains. Unfortunately, automakers have no intention to build most of these concepts. Instead, these vehicles serve as expressions of new design languages, and models to display upcoming technological trends, albeit trends not limited to plug-ins.
Regardless, despite the reality that most of these concepts are not production-intended, they are beginning to demonstrate some very poignant and important topics regarding the future.
Sure, the new curves and design lines expressed by these concepts, and to be featured to some extent in upcoming vehicles, are interesting. Good design can be a critical sale’s tool. Besides Auto Shows are akin to a fashion show in many respects. It’s not reality that is necessarily critical, it’s the myth of possibility.
Fortunately, the story being told by these new concepts is becoming much more realistic than it might seem at first glance. It’s not just about ’shock and awe’, it’s about form meeting the function of the future.
One-seaters, two-seaters, carbon-fiber, plastic wheels, cloud-connectedness, temperature reducing paint, embedded solar panels. Those are just some of the features have already been revealed ahead of the Frankfurt show via new concept vehicles, and many of these elements will find themselves in upcoming cars, such as cloud-connectedness and plastic wheels.
Other features will, of course, take longer to incorporate into new cars sales.
More important, however, many of these new concepts are challenging the entire notion of what personal transportation is, or at least what it could be in the future. Small, light single-seat vehicles, for instance, straight out of Tron.
While such concepts don’t fully resonate today, particularly outside of Gen Y, these ideas almost certainly offer a very real glimpse of the future.
Inevitably, congestion and limited resources will demand that these out-of-the-box concepts become reality. Sure, these cars probably won’t be enough by themselves. Instead, they’ll need to be coupled with new business models of car ownership, such as sharing. But the direction is inevitable.
Like it or not, believe it or not, but urban mobility is poised for great change — I’d bet within the decade — and at least conceptually, automakers seem to understand. What’s really going to separate the women from the girls is execution, or more precisely, daring to execute such a direction ahead of the pack.
Many pieces of a new automotive future are out there, now it’s time to start putting the puzzle together.
