Concept cars: Are design and engineering finally in alignment?
What is a concept car?
Concept cars have always been showstoppers and attention-grabbers at auto shows worldwide. Essentially, a concept car is a prototype vehicle that is built to showcase new styling and/or new technology for the purpose of gauging customer reaction. However, they were historically viewed as nothing more than a car designer's outlandish ideas about the future of automobiles. This was because both car manufacturers and customers believed that it would be difficult, or even impractical, to translate a concept vehicle into an actual production model.
Having said that, concept cars aren't actually a recent development. The world's first concept car was the Buick Y-Job, which was designed in 1938 by Harley J. Earl (then head of Design at General Motors). It was a convertible (or open-top) vehicle that came with pop-up headlamps, electric windows, wraparound bumpers, and flush door handles. If you're thinking that those are features most modern cars come with, you're right! But back in the day, these were completely unimaginable ideas that took several decades of refinement before they could go into production vehicles!
1938 Buick Y-Job
Why are we talking about concept cars?
Over the last five years, concept cars seem to have gone through an evolution. You could even call it their "coming of age" moment, as car designers and engineers in global automobile companies appear to have finally reached an alignment of vision. I say this because if you look at some of the recent production models from major car manufacturers, they look virtually indistinguishable from the concepts they are based on. For example, let's look at the Hyundai Tucson below, which is based on the Hyundai HDC-7 (or Vision-T) concept.
If you have already read my blog about the Hyundai Ioniq 5, which was named the World Car of the Year, World Electric Vehicle of the Year, and World Car Design of the Year in 2022, then you know why concept cars must be taken seriously now. In March 2023, Hyundai's sister company Kia Motors wowed automobile journalists and enthusiasts with their latest electric vehicle, the Kia EV9. This is a three-row SUV whose production version looks virtually indistinguishable from its concept. Take a look at the images below and let me know in the comments which one is the production version (no Google searches allowed!).
Are there other cars in production that look like their concepts?
The answer is YES! Take a look at some of the interesting concept to production models of global automobile manufacturers below.
Chevrolet Camaro (Above: Concept; Below: Production Model)
BMW i8 (Above: Concept; Below: Production Model)
Tata Harrier (Above: Production Model; Below: Concept)
Audi R8 (Above: Concept; Below: Production Model)
Lexus LC (Above Concept; Below: Production Model)
Kia Niro (Above: Concept; Below: Production Model)
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