Peugeot Design Contest 2008

Carlos Arturo Torres Tovar from Colombia was last week announced as the winner of the 5th annual Peugeot Design Contest at the 2008 Mondial de l'Automobile in Paris. The 25 year old designer's winning 'RD' concept was chosen via an online internet poll and a competition jury headed by Peugeot's Managing Director, Jean Philippe Collin.

This year's contest asked designers to "Imagine the Peugeot in the worldwide megalopolis of tomorrow" and to then design a car that could evolve with the cities of the future, while retaining the key values of the 21st century. Finalists were chosen based on their ability to retain and re-interpret contemporary Peugeot design language, and the successfulness of their design's economic efficiency, environmental awareness, social harmony and interactive mobility.

Tovar's winning design conceives of a single-seat, three-wheel vehicle. The arrangement features a single rear wheel, and the design is dominated by a central hinge-point, which allows the vehicle to contract in length - becoming more upright and therefore occupying a smaller footprint. Tovar argues that this allows the dual advantages of the vehicle being able to occupy less space in cities with heavy traffic and difficult parking conditions, while still being able to stretch-out into a lower, sportier vehicle during faster, free-flowing driving conditions. Central to Tovar's thinking was that this was above all "a vehicle to enjoy".

Being small was (perhaps unsurprisingly given the city-centric brief) a theme common to many of the designs. The ability to contract and reduce footprint was also employed by the 888 concept of finalist Oskar Johansen, and elsewhere it was notable how only one of the ten finalist's designs featured more than two seats. 

Runner-up Emre Yazici also designed a single-seat vehicle named the 'Ego', which he believes is appropriate for modern cities since, at busy times of day, private vehicles tend to only carry one occupant. The circular design theme features a large curved front glazing area which doubles as entrance door, while a single joystick controls the vehicle. Also notable in this design is the integration of the current Peugeot face, with large lower grille, prominent Lion logo, and swept-back headlamps.

Third place went to Lou Ke of China, whose 'oXo' concept envisages a future world where cars are more helpful and friendly, and which don't require their user to learn to drive first in order to use them. In a nod to an emerging trend, a Peugeot Phone controls the car, however, here it not only acts as a key, but as a steering wheel.

As the winner, Tovar will now have his design built as a full size model, and exhibited at the Shanghai Auto Show in April 2009. He also receives a check for €10,000, and a Microsoft Xbox 360 games console, with the second and third placed entrants receiving checks for €2,500 and €1,500 respectively, and Xboxes. Other finalists receive €1000 each.

The Design Contest this year received over 2500 entries, from which 30 designs were originally selected by Peugeot and exhibited online between 15 August and 15 September. These designs were then subject to an Internet poll - receiving 127,000 votes - and additionally judged by select members of the European automotive press before the Peugeot judging panel chose ten finalists. These finalist's designs were then exhibited online between 16 -30 September, before winners were selected by the panel and announced last week at the Paris show.

The ten finalists and their concept's were:

Related website:
Peugeot Design Contest

Related Article:
Design Contest: Peugeot for the Megalopolis of Tomorrow 

By Joe Simpson