Frankfurt Motor Show 2007 Trends and Overview
Mon, 15 Oct 2007
The Frankfurt Motor Show is home to the European moguls of the automotive industry. BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, the Volkswagen Group, GM Europe and much of Ford Europe all have their head offices within a few hours drive of the Frankfurt Messe, so it's only right that these automakers would bask in the limelight. But instead of competing for bragging rights for the most powerful cars in the range, this year's motor show afforded automakers an opportunity to showcase their environmental credentials and their latest 'innovative' powertrain technologies.
From the main German brands we had the BMW X6, a new type of car far removed from an environmentally low-impact vehicle, shown in concept form with a petrol-electric hybrid powertrain. Mercedes-Benz showed the F700, which boasted a diesel-electric hybrid powertrain; Volkswagen showed the highly compact Up! propelled by either a 2- or 3-cylinder engine, and Opel put another diesel-electric hybrid on show with the Flextreme. Other concept vehicles with environmentally sensitive powertrains included Citroen's diesel-electric Airscape hybrid, Hyundai's fuel-cell powered i-Blue, Nissan's electric Mixim and Volvo's petrol-electric C30 ReCharge.This 'environmental trend' is more of a permanent shift to future automotive propulsion systems and what customers increasingly want to have powering their cars (or want to say they have powering their cars). It was interesting to observe how, beyond engines, very little is actually environmentally-friendly. Citroen's C-Cactus is perhaps the most notable exception, having been conceived in its core concept to minimize its environmental impact. Numerous design innovations have been championed in the design of that car to push the theme forward. Otherwise, "green" was being touted in the design of the many new (and very similar) sub-brands from several OEMs, and epitomized by the Renault Eco2. These niche derivatives of existing mainstream models were signified by the most superficial design changes, such as closed-off grilles and 'streamlined' hub-caps.
Beyond the 'greenness' of Frankfurt this year, there were many other design trends that the Car Design News team observed. Increasingly, we're seeing front lights that wrap all the way around to the front wheel centre point when viewed from the side. Frankfurt debuts with this characteristic include the Nissan Mixim, Hyundai i-Blue, Volkswagen Up!, Toyota iQ and the Ford Verve. This trend is stemming from European pedestrian impact legislation that necessitates headlamps being further away from the leading front edge of the car. It is also influenced by new LED lamp technologies that enable deep set lamps to be replaced by a shallow lamp unit, which can sit within the space above the wheelarch.
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By CDN Team