Michelin Challenge Design 2010

The Michelin Challenge Design is an innovative and progressive way for Michelin to actively support the automotive design community. The program finds its inspiration from Michelin's corporate mission of providing better and safer mobility for the future.

The international design competition, now in its ninth year, offers participants from around the world a forum to share their passion and ideas. Professional and aspiring designers, individuals, teams, colleagues or students are welcome to join the hundreds of participants who enter the competition each year.

The automotive world is fast evolving, and the Michelin Challenge Design helps to introduce new technologies in a way that can help provide insight for the future. It also recognizes the critical role that automotive designers play in the development of vehicles.

Today, designers in Detroit, Paris, Tokyo, Mumbai and Shanghai all face the same challenges of improving fuel economy, reducing emissions and enhancing vehicle safety. As one of the core technologies under consideration, electric powertrains are rapidly being integrated into a variety of vehicles - from pure battery electric cars, through numerous configurations of hybrid-electrics, to the hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles of tomorrow.

How will this technology influence the design of future generations of vehicles? What distinctive features will those vehicles showcase? How can designers reconcile the functional attributes of an electric powertrain with the essence of pleasing and elegant automotive design?

As the director of the Michelin Challenge Design, I would like to personally invite you to join Michelin and designers from around the world in our quest to answer these questions.

"ELECTRIFYING: Beautiful, Innovative and Radiant!" is your opportunity to share your thoughts and vision during this exciting time in automotive history.

Still not convinced? Your design will be reviewed by a panel of jurors comprising some of the most respected car designers in the world. Renderings and scale models from all of our finalists will be displayed at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, in January 2010. And while Detroit is really cold at that time of the year, each finalist will be offered an opportunity to join us and meet very interesting people: professional designers from most vehicle manufacturers, representatives from the automotive press and fellow participants, like you.

So please join us. Simply click on www.michelinchallengedesign.com and register. There is still plenty of time to submit your projects, but the registration period will end soon.

I look forward to seeing you Detroit next January!

- Bob Miron, Director of the Michelin Challenge Design 

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