VW Designer Out, Replaced By Bentley Exec

[Auto Styling News]

The Volkswagen brand is replacing its design chief, Jozef Kaban, famous for his retro designs, with Bentley's design boss, Andreas Mindt, according to company sources.

Mindt will take up the post at VW brand on Feb. 1, the sources told European magazine Automobilwoche.

Mindt's successor at Bentley will be Tobias Suehlmann, who currently heads exterior design at the VW Group's ultraluxury brand, people familiar with the matter said. Suehlmann joined Bentley in October 2021, having previously worked at Bugatti, Aston Martin, McLaren and VW brand.

Kaban, who took charge of VW brand design in 2020, will be given a new post within VW Group.

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Auto Styling News is a blog that covers car concepts, newly released models, and the auto industry.

#VW's ID CROZZ #Concept Is An Autonomous Electric Slated For 2026 [Auto Styling News]

Volkswagen's I.D. CROZZ concept offers a fashionable sneak peek of the future, and that future is electric, autonomously driven crossover. And it may be in driveways by early 2026.

The concept's sleek, four-door coupe shape has a similar footprint to the new 2018 Tiguan, with dramatic doors that open 90 degrees in the front and slide back in the rear to reveal a cavernous interior. On the outside, the I.D. CROZZ greets passengers with a light show, with lighted VW logos and daytime running lights that “awaken” like eyes.

Personally, I'm not even a fan of the many, many vehicles already on the road that "blink" by turning out the headlamp when the turn signal is engaged. But I'm sure this silliness will either be long gone by 2026, or will be so ubiquitous that we don't even notice anymore.

The exterior is quite handsome, and is a bit of a step up from today's rather bland VWs. The sliding rear doors are just plain silly, and likely won't make it to production, but are less silly than ones seen on many other concepts, or current minivans. Not sure they want to emulate minivans, but it's entirely possible they show up on the final version.

The I.D. CROZZ resembles, especially from a side view, the Toyota Prius Prime, which isn't a bad vehicle design to emulate.

The production car, says VW, will feature the company's I.D. Pilot self-driving system concept. That means that in self-driving mode, the steering wheel of the I.D. CROZZ will (rather horrifyingly) retract into the dash, and the interior lights will change color. Drivers can summon the I.D. Pilot by simple voice controls, and the concept system is designed to rely on four laser scanners that pop up from the roof of the I.D. CROZZ, as well as ultrasonic sensors, radar sensors, side area view cameras and a front camera.

VW estimates that the car's battery pack will be able to be recharged up to 80 percent in 30 minutes when using a 150-kWh fast charger. The company's EV plans are among the most ambitious in the industry, and call for launching next-generation electric vehicles on three continents - Europe, Asia and North America - anticipated to begin in 2020.

#VW Shows Off Sexy #Arteon At Geneva Auto Show [Auto Styling News]

The lackluster sales of the Passat/CC has led VW to replace it with a dramatically styled replacement that - lo, and behold - will actually go on sale later this year as a 2018 model! (*In Europe. Probably later in the USA.)

Shocking, perhaps, that a concept (itself based on the GTE Coupe Concept from 2015) will actually go on sale, unlike the numerous iterations of the 1960s VW Bug, the latest of which we won't dignify with a comment. What's even more shocking is that this is a really beautiful design.

Dr. Elmar-Marius Licharz, head of the mid- and full-size vehicle lines for Volkswagen, raves about its design.

"The car looks simply great – it both arouses emotions and creates desirability," he said. "Many of the details of the show car have made it into real production."

Yes, it does. The company is calling the car a "fastback," which technically means a car's roofline merges smoothly into its tail in one, smooth, seamless curve. Indeed  that's the case here, though if its meant to evoke the old VW Bug, that's not the case, but it's still beautifully wrought. (The Type 3 Fastback sedan of the late 1960s is a better analogy, as the company points out.)

The name Arteon is a portmanteau of "art" and "eon," the suffix that cleverly signifies all high-end luxury models within the Volkswagen brand worldwide. The Arteon’s integrated grille, LED headlamps and daytime running lights with chrome trim that connects all three elements presents the new “face” of the Volkswagen brand.

Compared to the outgoing CC, the Arteon is longer and wider, while its fastback profile allows for a true hatchback trunk. It’s also space efficient, with up to 55 cubic feet of cargo space when the rear seats are folded down.

LED taillights and 20-inch wheels combined with a SEXY shoulder line that runs the length of the body, highlighting the Arteon’s sporty nature.

THE AUDI PROBLEM
The car does have a problem, however, and it's a problem I call "the Audi Problem."

The company's website says, "while the Arteon offers a premium appearance, it will not carry a huge price tag." Lichartz is quoted as saying it's "the perfect car for people who appreciate great style and great value for money. That is how we are challenging premium car makers without becoming one ourselves." While Volkswagen assuredly is NOT a luxury car company, it's sure approaching one when it puts out such a high-end vehicle as this, and one like the much-maligned CC.

And the problem with all that is that Volkswagen HAS a luxury brand: Audi. And it undercuts sales of new and even used Audis when it puts out a "near-luxury" luxury car such as this.

Audi has long struggled to get itself back on top after a decade or two of floundering sales with cars that looked like, well, flounders. This car, admittedly beautiful and luxurious, is part of Volkswagen's "Audi Problem," because it most assuredly cuts into sales of its A3 entry-level car - which strangely resembles, and perhaps, the Arteon even RIVALS with its gorgeous sheetmetal curves

As KIA is learning with its poorly selling upscale K900 model, a non-luxury car company is NOT a luxury car company, nor can it be. Leave that to the upscale version of your brand (or in the case of KIA, *build* a luxury brand) and then don't try to compete with it.

#VW Teases "Revolutionary" Electric Vehicle By 2020 [Auto Styling News]

At next month's Paris Motor Show, Volkswagen - seeking to turn the page on its scandalous gaming of emissions standards - will urge us to "Think New." And the concept car it recently teased ahead of the show is actually something pretty good, if may live up to the hype, if it makes it off the drawing board.

Volkswagen says the concept electric vehicle it will launch by 2020 will be based on it's "modular electric toolkit" (MEB in German) the basis of battery-electric vehicles with ranges of  249 to 373 miles. Several vehicles up and down the product line will apparently benefit from this new technology, including a beefed up electric car with greater range before 2020 (the current one gets a mere 83 miles out of a full charge.) By 2025, VW hopes to be selling between 2 million and 3 million electric vehicles every year.

This one-of-a-kind concept car, says VW, signals the brand’s entry into a new era, as revolutionary, it claims, "as the Beetle was seven decades ago, before it evolved into the world’s best-selling car of the last century." This car, too, they claim, "has the potential to make history with its completely new vehicle concept."

All well and good. The car, which we have only seen teased in the photos here, sure looks nice. The headlamps and tail lamps alone look revolutionary. And even if it had a regular gasoline engine in it, it looks like a winner (assuming, of course, consumers forgive them by 2020 for lying about earlier models' emissions!) But a note of caution here: VW, not unlike GM, Toyota and many other brands, have a history of teasing big changes and gorgeous concepts, only to have bean-counters ratchet down the beauty in the production phase.

One hopes they not only ARE able to deliver on these astounding range figures, but that the vehicles continue to evolve into something beautiful, like these indicate they will most certainly will be.

#VW Teams Up With LG To Create "Connected" Cars [Auto Styling News]

Today's marriages of tech companies and car companies continues, and is likely to give birth to amazing technological advances in the next decade.

The Volkswagen Group and LG Electronics are the latest to team up. Earlier this month in Wolfsburg, Germany, both signed a memorandum of understanding on the joint research and development of a next-generation connected car service platform.

The two companies have pledged to work together on Volkswagen's Cross-Over-Platform, which is aimed at enhanced vehicle connectivity and convenience. Using the latest in cloud technology, it will offer drivers seamless digital access to extensive features such as smart home and location-based services.

Vehicles like the VW zero-emission BUDD-e electric van concept (at left) imagined as a 2019 vehicle, will likely benefit from this alliance.

Another beneficiary will be concepts like the GEA, unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in 2015. It was already a collaboration between LG Electronics and VW, having seven key components supplied by LG, including the holographic display, connected smart watch, tail lights and rear camera. In July, LG was selected as Volkswagen's strategic electronics supplier and also listed as a partner company on its FAST (Future Automotive Supply Tracks) program. At CES earlier this year, the two companies attracted great attention showcasing a smart home system that could be controlled remotely from the vehicle.

Over the coming years, the two companies say they will be concentrating on:
• Developing technologies that bring together the connected car and the smart home
   so that drivers are able to control and monitor smart devices in their homes —
   such as lights, security systems and domestic appliances — from out on the road.
• Developing a context-sensitive notification center that can deliver messages in an
   intuitive and safe manner and provide optimized recommendations to the driver in
   real time.
• Developing next-generation infotainment technology for connected cars.

LG was one of the first electronics companies to commit itself to the automotive industry. It has been supplying audio-visual products for vehicles since 2007, establishing a reputation for reliability and technological innovation.

Geneva Auto Show's Best Concepts

Car and Driver lists some of the Geneva Auto Show's hottest concept cars.

Of note is a VW Microbus concept which is apparently headed to production and will appeal mightily to Boomers in the US and Europe, the beautiful SAAB PhoeniX which brings to mind the gorgeous Peking-to-Paris concept from Spyker. (It's no wonder they are similar, since SAAB was acquired by the Dutch company last year.)

Audi's A3 concept is tougher-looking and more handsome than A6 photos that have been leaked recently, which shows that the "upside down bathtub" may yet die at the German automaker.

Alfa Romeo's 4C concept shows promise, though it's hard to see it being built and even harder to see Americans getting any.

The Ferrari FF speaks for itself. It's utterly gorgeous. We'll feature this in a future blog post.