The Accessor Spring 2025 Web - Flipbook - Page 30
JOURNAL
ENGINEERING
BYD's factory in Jinan will make a signi昀椀cant contribution to the 32 million
vehicles expected to roll off vehicle production lines in China this year.
Andrew Marsh FIMI, Director, Autobody Bible.
AUTOMOTIVE
DESIGN – THE BEST EVER
OR IN A RUT?
Better by design? Not necessarily so according to Andrew Marsh FIMI, Director of
Autobody Bible, a new online resource for collision repairers. He discusses the design
dilemmas facing consumers and how these might eventually impact on repairers as
EU and UK-based manufacturers battle it out for their custom.
rying to decode how a
manufacturer has come
up with a model – Ford
Capri for example – is
fun, especially when
trying to decipher what customer it
will attract. A Lamborghini Urus is
not inexpensive, the external parts
and much of the interior is unique to
Lamborghini, the order books – small
– are full. Yet all the main investments –
body structure, powertrain, suspension/
steering – are based on components
originated from or shared with Audi,
Volkswagen as well as Porsche.
T
So, the speculation begins.
Just what does a customer see in a
Urus that they don’t see in an Audi RS
Q8, or the Bentley Bentayga? Urus
represents the spirit of Lamborghini
and the reality – a user might well own
mid-engine models as well, but know
that the Urus is the work horse which
has the same relatively extreme design
language. Before we think about other
concepts, a Lamborghini saloon for
example is going to take some hefty
marketing – and might work, but right
now, is less likely to.
In effect, the land of super expensive
cars have accepted ‘legends’ which
reward lucky owners with lower than
usual rate of depreciation, some 昀椀ne
30
but largely invisible vehicles (Aston
Martin DBX, for example) which are
not complimented the same way, and
tortured lesser vehicles dressed by the
likes of Kahn Design or… Mansory.
The latter vehicles are usually taste
free, but the companies seem to sell
their confections to a dedicated if tiny
number of buyers.
Mainstream conformity
The typical aspirational vehicle from
China, for example, will have pure
electric or PHEV powertrain – the
latter to get around impending EU27
tax tariffs. The body will have light
bars on both ends, have a Qualcomm
Snapdragon processing chip for
immense in-car entertainment which
appears on acres of touch screens. Of
course, these vehicles will be marketed
as ‘close to’, ‘equal to’ or ‘better than’
Porsche, which is a lump of internal
China marketing lobbed into the
international vehicle market.
The vehicles? Anything from a Tesla
Model Y competitor to one step
removed from an e-Scooter.
The deeper problem.
European design studios have recycled
designers, and in the process ended
up with an averaged set of design
themes. Recently these have been
tuned with ‘bling’ and extended rear
seat leg-room to appeal to customers
in China, but that market has become
increasingly self-satis昀椀ed with domestic
products. After all, China is set to build
32 million vehicles – one-third of the
global output – in 2025.
In effect the averaged design
combined with corporate identity
means, for example, badges from
Audi to SEAT to Škoda to Volkswagen
can be applied to any design – the
individual brand language has been
diluted. In turn this leads to real
consumer confusion, and for the
manufacturer, the potential to have
sales success with lower margin
products at the expense of more
pro昀椀table vehicles.
Yet, JLR for example with a pretty
long record of ‘dif昀椀culties’, seems not
to have too much dif昀椀culty selling
vehicles. In other words, the consumer
is driven by more than the outer skin
form or interior features of the vehicle.
The vehicles have ‘soul’ – or, at least,
I think that’s what customers say!
Why should collision repairers
care?
We are on the cusp of a truly huge
event. If the EU and UK-based vehicle
THE ASSESSORS JOURNAL | SPRING 2025 | www.iaea-online.org/news/the-assessor
