By 2013, you might drive BMW’s up-next Megacity- an electric vehicle! Needless to say, it’s a concept that will drive you off your feets. The image itself is exciting and wild, and getting me crazy. However, details are a little scarce at the moment but the Megacity is expected to draw from a rear-mounted electric motor. Stay tuned.
Pundits have always analyzed that soon we will have cities with more than 10 million people. So automakers are looking at ways to reduce the automotive footprint. General Motors has shown its EN-V, for Electric Networked-Vehicle, a podlike two-seater for the megacities of 2030. It is currently being demonstrated at the Expo 2010 world’s fair in Shanghai. Even Ford showed its Start concept car at the Beijing auto show this year. The Start is built of composite panels on a metal frame, with a shape that recalls the New Beetle and Mini Cooper.
And now BMW have something amazing in store for us (the wheels are driving me mad indeed). I guess designers have started plannig new types of vehicles for the world’s congested metropolitan areas. Even the United Nations estimates that the population of cities, now 3.2 billion, will rise to 5 billion by 2030. And by 2050, the U.N. projects, 70 percent of the world’s population will live in cities.
In briefings this week, BMW mostly discussed the car’s materials and technology. But Adrian van Hooydonk, director of BMW Group Design, also talked about the MCV’s design. In a telephone interview, he said the Mega City would be part of an entire new BMW subbrand. The challenge, he said, is whether BMW “can produce a car that is both sustainable and premium.”
BMW knows how to create premium products. “They are highly emotional, with refined materials and high level of attention to detail,” Mr. van Hooydonk said. “But there was a belief that premium and sustainable could not go together.”
The company assembled a special group to speed the project to completion. “We put a team together of 15 exterior and interior designers, together with engineers, he said. “If you want to create something very new in a short time frame you have to have everybody sitting together.”
“It is sometimes hard for designers to get their heads around the change,” Mr. van Hooydonk said. He added, “The chance to work on such a new formula is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” The Mega City Vehicle is imagined not simply as an in-city errand hauler, but as a commuter car. “In the beginning of the program we asked, what does ‘megacity’ mean?’” he said. “What kind of people will drive this car? What will they do everyday?”
He noted that while “many people are looking forward to zero-emission cars,” some worry about the vehicles’ range and their safety. “Many are afraid they will have to give up coolness or sense of style,” he said. “People fear that a responsible car might look ugly or weird.”
To find ways to reassure them, Mr. van Hooydonk said, the designers looked not so much at other cars as at other sustainable products, from food to furniture. Most sustainable products involved sacrifice; BMW’s design team did not think people would be willing to sacrifice much with a car.
The MCV looks sportier than most electrics. The front end is short, but the dynamic sweep of the roof and beltline (the line that runs below the side windows) keep it from being podlike. “It will look stable and solid on its wheels,” Mr. van Hooydonk said.
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