At the recent Paris Motor Show, BMW sat down with Adrian Van Hooydonk, Senior Vice President BMW Group. Amid topics similar the BMW six Series Coupe Concept and the new X3 SAV, the word also steered towards the new BMW pattern language and future plans, premium mobility, Apple tree design and the hipster MINI Scooters.

Prior to be named Caput of BMW Pattern, Van Hooydonk designed or influenced the pattern of BMW 6 and vii Series lines, too the Z9 Concept Machine, the BMW Concept CS and the M1 Hommage Study.

Judging by his words and emotions during the interview, the future of BMW design team is in good hands, and the confidence inspired past Van Hooydonk volition transpose into upcoming designs.

BMWBLOG: What will BMW do next for styling? Nosotros believe the new F10 5 series adheres to a more classic, conservative BMW design theme, as opposed to its more than radical predecessor, the E60. Will we meet more than radical pattern language in the futurity, or will BMW continue downwards this more conservative styling path?

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Adrian Van Hooydonk: If you look at our history, it has always stood for lightweight, very well proportioned, dynamic and elegant cars. I call up that'due south what you come across now, in this new generation.  Ten years ago BMW made a big change and it was but to widen the pattern vocabulary. Once we had done that, nosotros felt that we were okay once again. The generation of cars we're doing now, the 7, the 5 and the new half-dozen; we believe they are a perfect balance between dynamics and elegance.

"…the vii, the five and the new 6; we believe they are a perfect residuum between dynamics and elegance."

The lines are still sharp and the manner we are doing it, it'due south not softer or more conservative; when you look at our pattern from twenty or 30 meters away, information technology's not complicated, you only see two or 3 lines in the new 6 Series for example, merely when you walk up close and you walk around the car, you see how carefully, how complex the surfaces are crafted considering is really is very complicated. I think in this generation you lot see how much we've learned from the past. I retrieve there's no car company I know that is able to do this type of complex surfacing, but when you exercise this surfacing and make information technology look easy, that means you lot've mastered the design linguistic communication, and that'southward our goal.

Of course, the cars should be beautiful.

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BMWBLOG: The new 6 Series coupe seems to take a very lean, muscular design over the existing half-dozen Series which you've designed. Was there a specific design point that y'all chose to address in the new motorcar?

Adrian Van Hooydonk: The 6 Series is very successful. The 6 Series that I ended upwards designing, that was sort of a relaunch of the 6, it had been away for about ten years and we had the 8 Series in between. The 6er that I designed was and is very successful in the market for eight years and I think when you look at the design today, it doesn't look like information technology'southward eight years old, if I may say so myself.

Market place success proves that.

Only inevitably the time comes around when you must do the next generation and when the fourth dimension came to sit down around and think most what nosotros wanted to practice for the new machine we said well, we want to develop it in a way to brand information technology more sporty and more elegant. We made it more elegant by improving the proportions. The wheelbase got longer, the auto got a little wider, the car got a little lower – that cannot be wrong for a motorcar, for a BMW. To make it more than sporty, you can immediately run into it when you wait at the front of the car, the headlamps, the lower bumper, the kidneys are fifty-fifty lower and wider – all of these things make the car more sporty.

At the rear, the auto looks a lot wider. It is wider, just for case through the pattern of the tail lamps which are very wide and very flat, nosotros make the automobile wait twice as wide. So all of these things we talked nigh in the commencement, and that is why the car looks similar that. Not because nosotros were unhappy with the previous one, we establish a lot of happy customers with the previous motorcar, but if you can make a car more sporty and more elegant and it is the summit of the line coupe for BMW – that'south a practiced management to take.

"…if you tin make a car more sporty and more elegant and it is the elevation of the line coupe for BMW – that's a good direction to take."

BMWBLOG: The new vi Series looks to embody all of the design cues from BMW'southward latest models. With so much contest in this price range, do you remember the about important aspect of design is on the interior or outside of the car?

Adrian Van Hooydonk: In my experience, the interior is what keeps the customer buying your production, the exterior is what gets them interested at beginning because the exterior is the first thing you see. If they accept already driven a 6 Series or another BMW and they accept 'lived' in information technology for I don't know how many years, that is what decides whether they will buy your production again.

Both are extremely important – nosotros talked about what we've done to the exterior, making it more than sporty and more elegant – we did the same matter on the interior. The interior is more sporty because at that place is more driver orientation. If you look at the dashboard, yous will meet a line starting at the top of the dashboard coming all the way to the center panel, and so the whole interior is very asymmetrical, even more in the five.

"The interior is more than sporty considering there is more driver orientation"

Driver orientation is very important for any BMW, because BMWs are made for people that like to drive, but of class in the half dozen Serial beingness the tiptop of the line sports motorcar, information technology's even more important. Then there is very modern detailing, very interesting things. If you look at the door panels and the flow of the line in the door panel coming from the dashboard, I recollect that is extremely elegant, very subtle. And the way nosotros've dealt with the computer screen uses very modern detail.

Up until now in our cars nosotros have integrated the computer screen into the dashboard, only on the 6 series it looks similar a apartment screen, and information technology is. It'due south standing complimentary of the dashboard. In that location are two reasons: first of all we were able to make the dashboard much lower and you experience yous tin can look out of the auto much better, and of course everyone has flat screens at dwelling house right now, it is the way of the hereafter. Cell phones go along getting thinner, so that I believe is a very prissy and modern detail to the interior.

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BMWBLOG: While we're on the interior design topic, nosotros'll add together ane more question: The rumor is that you lot're a big Apple fan, a fan of their industrial design and their simplicity and elegance – is there anything that we meet in the new half dozen Series' interior that is following a like path?

Adrian Van Hooydonk: Let me answer yous this fashion, I take a lot of respect for the Apple design team and what they've done over the last couple of years, I retrieve it's fantastic. I think the success of that company is largely due to them, the designers.

"…I have a lot of respect for the Apple pattern team and what they've washed over the last couple of years, I call up information technology's fantastic"

Of class, the products are clever too; I think information technology proves that if you have extremely good functionality and a highly emotional design you tin be very successful, and that is what we are doing here at BMW likewise. All are products need to work very well, demand to be prophylactic, need to handle well, faster than a lot of other cars and use less fuel than a lot of other cars but ultimately it is most emotion and that's what draws people in.

I met Jonathan Ivy recently (our note: Apple Mobile Head of Blueprint) , he's a cool guy and we got along very well. I know that Apple'southward design squad, and I met them as well, are interested in cars. As designers nosotros get along very well, but I cannot just take lines from their products and put it on a car. The only thing mayhap that yous could say is that we've observed for a while that in consumer electronics things are getting slimmer with high gloss surfaces.

In the 7 Series and now in the six Series equally well, on the middle stick we have what nosotros telephone call black console and you probably know what information technology is because we've talked about it. In older cars all of this was black plastic which we didn't like then much, so now nosotros designed the whole center stick like it is a display and in that location are some buttons coming through.

You lot could say that it's an inspiration that comes from high-end audio or from loftier-end electronic equipment, the flat screen in the six Series – this is some other thing where you can say we were inspired by what's going on in high-terminate electronics. The difference between cars and cell phones of class is that cars move and have ability, so nosotros don't merely want to make beautiful objects that piece of work very well, nosotros want to make our cars await like they are moving, and Jonathan doesn't accept to do that.

BMWBLOG: The new 5 and 6 Series were introduced to the consumers, what is next for BMW?

Adrian Van Hooydonk: Many things, as you can imagine, but the 6 Series that we're showing here is a preview, it's a concept but it is very close to what information technology volition be similar, and so next for us is the launch of the production car, which is actually for BMW quite a pregnant event because it's a top of the line car.

Then, adjacent yr is going to be very interesting also, at that place are a lot of new car launches, but nosotros will go into that once we're at that place because hither in Paris, nosotros already take lots of new stuff on display. We have the new X3 which is an important car for the brand and we have the new half-dozen Series preview.

"…next year is going to be very interesting also, there are a lot of new motorcar launches…"

BMWBLOG: Where does the Gran Coupe fit into the lineup and what was the determination to build the Gran Coupe along with the other 6 Series models?

Adrian Van Hooydonk: BMW has e'er stood for very elegant and sporty iv door cars, limousines. Nosotros felt that that terrain is changing speedily and there is a lot of talk about four-dour coupes and we felt that that would be a natural playground for BMW, and then that'southward how the idea came about. I think at present yous begin to see how we'll be able to exercise it. We're thinking of a product family of the BMW lineup, the 6 Series coupe, convertible and i day a four-door type of car. The proper name is not yet decided just it will be in that kind of territory.

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"Nosotros're thinking of a product family of the BMW lineup, the 6 Series coupe, convertible and one day a iv-door type of car"

BMWBLOG: The creases that are showing up on the hoods of recent BMW cars, are they there for technical reasons or are practise they purely be only for aesthetics?

Adrian Van Hooydonk: It is both emotional and technical. We see that those lines are moving back from the BMW logo and typically we show these lines moving dorsum to the A-colonnade, and it shows how the air would move along the nose of the car.

Sometimes we have a few more than lines like on the 5 Series or similar on the Z4, merely all of this you lot could too trace back to our history – the 2002 had similar lines. It adds precision and it adds direction. On the 5 Serial for instance, when y'all sit behind the steering wheel as a driver, y'all come across that information technology helps yous focus on the road. If you see information technology from the outside it is an indication of how the air would flow.

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Now it is also clever in a technical way because the section of this, if you look advisedly at what happens on the bonnet, often this volition be the highest point of the bonnet, and underneath this signal is the shock tower, if you open the bonnet – and why is this then important? It's important considering of pedestrian safety. Now, with pedestrian safety, nosotros take the engine underneath here and y'all always need to have a sure amount of space betwixt the outside of the hood and the difficult pieces below. The shock tower is a hard piece and the engine likewise, so we really make sure that the section where yous accept the engine and shock towers typically have the highest point on the bonnet.

So equally designers, we actually have to be very careful and deliberate about where we put the lines, and so our designers take actually get very clever in dealing with these new regulations and still manage to brand it look like a BMW.

(Our Note: Van  Hooydonk sketched on a piece of newspaper the design reasons behind the hood creases)

BMWBLOG: Allow'south talk about the MINI Electric Scooter concepts.

Adrian Van Hooydonk: It is part of the BMW Group wanting to exist the virtually successful provider of premium mobility solutions. We already brand two wheeled vehicles, every bit nosotros accept been doing this for a long long time, motorcycles at the moment are more or less leisure vehicles, it's something that y'all use on the weekends for fun, not so much for everyday transportation unless you lot're really a fan.

"People will reevaluate how they travel in the city"

Nosotros believe that when urban center traffic becomes denser and denser like here in the city of Paris, as you come across as an example, ii-wheeled transportation will probably get a 2nd look. People will reevaluate how they travel in the metropolis. That's what we expect and and then in an urban environment, making electric vehicles as well makes a lot of sense because many cities are putting regulation in place that will prevent yous from entering the urban center if your motorcar or vehicle emits more a sure limit.

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Of course electric driving offers zero emissions. We wouldn't be BMW Group if the products that nosotros recollect of are not fun and highly emotional, and MINI is exactly that. MINI should be the brand that allows you to arrive at the inner city or wherever you desire to get, because sometimes on four wheels, it is hard to become downtown or information technology's hard to find a parking spot, but on two-wheels it is that much easier. Those are all the thoughts that I believe are logical that led to this project.

"…Nosotros wouldn't exist BMW Grouping if the products that we think of are not fun and highly emotional, and MINI is exactly that"

We take previewed it in London last week and the response was very favorable. Now we showing information technology once again at the Paris Motor Show and so we desire to gather feedback and encounter where we go from at that place. It's a very exciting project because MINI has never washed annihilation on 2-wheels nor has BMW done scooters, so information technology's actually make new territory and I'm very excited likewise.

BMWBLOG: Tell us more about BMW'southward future in electric vehicles and how will this fit with the "Ultimate Driving Automobile" brand.

Adrian Van Hooydonk: It's going to be fun to drive. Don't forget that electric cars, if we talk most electric cars – they have phenomenal acceleration, it'south not gradual, it is instant all the way.

So whatsoever nosotros're going to do, and nosotros are going to practice an electric vehicle for 2013, the Megacity vehicle, information technology will exist a fun driving experience. We're going to make sure of that. Electric mobility is non the just affair we volition be doing in the future, nosotros expect by the year 2022 15% or and then, 25% at well-nigh will be electrical, and then that notwithstanding means that the bulk of vehicles will have other means of propulsion, and we're pretty good at that too, and then we're not going to forget that. All we're doing is making sure that our customers will have a pick, that they will never be prevented from going anywhere they want to go.

"Whatever nosotros're going to do, it's going to be premium and it's going to be fun."

BMWBLOG: What volition the Megacity vehicle bring to the market place different from the competitors?

Adrian Van Hooydonk: I think the main differentiator will be that information technology will be premium and it volition be desirable. Yes, there are already electrical vehicles, there are sustainable vehicles, virtually of them are probably being bought for rational reasons. People begin to think, I should switch, I should exist driving that.

Practise they absolutely love them? I don't recollect and so.

This is what we want to change. We want to offer something people see and say, "I want that car" and the fact that it's zip emissions volition exist an added bonus. Nosotros want them to buy information technology because they love information technology, and if we manage that, then information technology volition also lead to a bigger change. I think that is really a market place opportunity. Many machine companies see the changes that are going on in the earth as a threat – we never exercise that, nosotros encounter it equally opportunity.

"….I don't intendance what drivetrain information technology has, I want that car"

The market niche is emotion in combination with sustainability. The offset step to that was the testify car that we had in Frankfurt last year, the Vision Efficient Dynamics. That'southward our idea of what a super sports car of the future could expect like. We got very favorable reactions to that, many people even said, "I don't intendance what drivetrain it has, I want that motorcar" and that means that this is possible.

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BMWBLOG: How exciting is it for a designer to build a sub-brand from the bottom upwardly, pretty much from scratch?

Adrian Van Hooydonk: Information technology'due south true, the design team and I realized that an opportunity like that, probably only comes forth once in a designer'due south life, this doesn't happen very often. The large changes in drivetrain that are going to happen will allow u.s.a. a designers more than liberty because in that location is going to be a new set of rules. There is no industry standard withal, then there is a lot of room for experimentation and creation.

And so right now, as designers we're living in very very exciting times.

BMWBLOG: Iii big words that we go along hearing from BMW lately: lightweight, sustainability, and mobility. What changes do you see in accomplishing these three things from a designer's prospective?

Adrian Van Hooydonk: Possibly the best case to talk about it would be the Vision Concept machine. It is a hybrid, plug-in hybrid, then it has batteries and electric motors. Because it has batteries the machine has to be synthetic in a unlike way. Batteries are withal heavier today than fuel, so the whole car has to go lightweight. Nosotros need to use materials like carbon cobweb and the aerodynamics demand to become drastically better. That can be done, we've shown it in this concept car.

"There is no industry standard yet, so there is a lot of room for experimentation and creation"

This is the first concept motorcar we've put in the wind tunnel to test and the drag co-efficient is 0.22, very very low. The sharp edges that you see on this machine have an aerodynamic function.

Equally designers nosotros've studied the aerodynamics quite hard and nosotros've talked to the engineers a lot about carbon fiber and how we tin make things lighter and so in the design team we though about how nosotros tin make information technology look lighter. The answer that nosotros came upwards with is that the body panels of that car nigh seem to flow. In that location are large glass areas in combination with the floating body panels which makes the motorcar look light.

At present of grade, we're working on and integrating that into the BMW form linguistic communication. The manner nosotros do it is starting time we derive inspiration from the engineering, then we build a vision, a concept car where we are free, then we translate that back into the grade language.

BMWBLOG: How do you sculpt carbon fiber? Are there any blueprint limitations for styling?

Adrian Van Hooydonk: No, nosotros can do actually a lot of shapes in carbon fiber, you tin can form information technology very easily. In that sense there is no restraint – the only thing that nosotros sometimes find is that you demand bigger cantankerous sections hither and there to get the aforementioned stiffness, only that is more an technology topic than a design topic.

In terms of sculpture, we are very free with carbon fiber.

BMWBLOG: And the final question. You lot've told in our last interview about your involvement in architecture. Are there whatever other areas of design that you're interested in? Peradventure furniture or fashion design?

Adrian Van Hooydonk: Every designer needs to find inspiration and I find inspiration in BMW'due south history, as well as the history of MINI and Rolls-Royce. Our job of course is to translate our heritage into the time to come and nobody really knows what is going to happen in the future, just I think that artistic people take a very fine antenna for what is going to happen and I'g in contact with people from the mode world, manner designers and industrial designers, I go to the Milan furniture fair every year where all the product designers of the world come together and show their latest creations. I know a lot of them personally and I'm lucky to likewise make it touch with world famous artists like Jeff Koons.

When BMW does an art automobile, I get to meet these artists and they too think about the future constantly, so we substitution views about that. I can never get something from them that I can apply direct onto a car, just I get from them inspiration and I get feedback about how they remember the future is going to be, and they get the same affair from me past the style, for their work, and that is actually very helpful.

See as well our previous interview from Detroit Car Show.

[Leading Photo by Dustin Kirk]