Global Automotive Forum hosts designer roundtable meeting in Chengdu, China

The second Global Automotive Forum took place last week in the Jiaozhi international conference center in Chengdu, one of the most important economic and transportation centers in Western China. The two-day event was based around the theme of 'Crossing from Producing to Innovation Country' and was attended by more than 80 people from the global automotive industry.

While most of the sessions revolved around the greater automotive industry in China, Car Design News was asked to organize a session of the forum centered on design, which included a 'roundtable meeting' for designers. The session debated the topic centered on a core theme: "What kind of car character will be owned in 2020".

Deliberating the topic were Xuan Qiwu, the Chairman of Durate Technology Co., Ltd, China; Andreas Deufel, Design Director of Great Wall Motors; Oliver Boulay, Vice President of the Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design Center, China, and Per Adamsson, Director of Managing Information and Services Solutions at Volvo.

As the discussion unfolded, Xuan Qiwu opined that, by 2020, China will face a severe energy problem. It is therefore vital, he said, to improve the efficiency and fuel consumption of existing cars as well as develop pure, fully-electric automobiles.

Andreas Deufel, Design Director of Great Wall Motors suggested we all accept our responsibility towards seeing our climate as the most basic ingredient for a good life and happiness, both for ourselves and for following generations. He advocated the improvement of sustainability in individual transport by increasing the application of modern technology, such as intelligent navigation, including batch driving, inter-car communication and, eventually, a self-driving mode in order to use the time whilst travelling more efficiently. He also proposed the architecture of the vehicles should incorporate lightweight materials, improved aerodynamics, more modern packaging and cleaner engine technology.
 
Of course this should not be at the expense of the flexibility of the product in order that it caters for a wide range of everyday tasks for the average user, while Deufel also stressed that we should not forget to make product cool and fun to drive while implementing these attributes. "A car that manages a positive emotional connection with the user always will be the better product", he added.

Deufel closed with the hope that there will be room for an automotive equivalent to Steve Jobs who has the courage to change the world for everyone.

During his speech, Olivier Boulay stated that designers should think and anticipate future trends to provide solutions able to meet customers' requirements without compromise. Boulay suggested that – with the Chinese government actively promoting the all-electric car – manufacturers use their research on electric vehicles to support policy making and infrastructures to eventually overcome China's prolific traffic congestion, accident and pollution problems.

Interestingly, Boulay turned to Steve Jobs again, referring to him as a "Visionary leader who once pointed out that people do not know what they really want tomorrow, but you can create such needs for them".

Per Adamsson concluded that with more and more automobile manufacturers bringing cars online, car service innovation shall be improved by the year 2020. And that the potential eco-system of interconnecting social, infrastructure, traffic signal, automobile and distributor aspects can only be beneficial to the consumer.

By Xie Guoqing and Bai Jianan