Vehicles are designed years before they come to market. Trends are predicted, technology is analyzed and future regulations are considered as automakers set off to make a new or next-generation model.
With a long list of cars and SUVs on the market globally, Volkswagen is working to evolve its design language for new vehicles. Its new ID. CROSS Concept, first shown at IAA Mobility, a transportation industry trade show in Munich, Germany, in September, highlights the changes ahead. Less costly models won’t be technologically stripped-down versions of their better-appointed counterparts and the company intends to improve quality.
Volkswagen’s Chief Design Officer, Andreas Mindt, began his tenure in 2023 and the vehicles designed under his leadership are just now coming to market.
“Andy, when he came, he was thinking quite a lot about how to reinterpret to the modern electric era classic Volkswagen values,” Tibor Juhasz, a designer at the company, told Newsweek during the Car Design Event at National Auto Museum – The Loh Collection in Dietzhölztal, Germany.
Mindt’s strategy was simple, Juhasz explained. Designers were tasked with creating a “likeable and exciting stable” of vehicles. “He was always mentioning secret sauce, but how [do] we reinterpret secret sauce in design? What is secret sauce?” the designer posited.
He continued, saying, “For us designers, and I believe for many people, it’s the same as when you meet a human for the first time in your life, and then you feel it’s sympathetic or not. What we would like to achieve with our design language and this secret sauce message or excitement message: You come in the room, you check your car, and you need to love it. That’s the goal for us. It’s our task now, to find these key elements in the heart of the customers.”
Volkswagen’s ID. Polo was the first vehicle to debut with this “secret sauce.” It was shown at IAA Mobility. The next model with that design direction is the ID. CROSS Concept.
“What is important for Andy is what’s next,” Henrik Gülzow, another Volkswagen designer, said. “This is the first SUV [specifically] for the European market. Earlier in the year, we released the Chinese cars, three prototypes, and this is the next step for the European market.”
The concept SUV is the size of a city get around. It’s designed to be approachable and likable, with a “friendly face” that does not offer a driver any questions when they approach it, Gülzow explained.
The company’s design team is working to bring “beautiful design, that [is] efficient design, and also likable design… Basically, to find this seduction. Seduction is the most important thing,” Juhasz said.
The seduction for a buyer should be in a Volkswagen’s visual and ease of use, Juhasz explained, saying, “A true Volkswagen should be recognizable. When you see this car, you know it’s not noisy. You see it and you feel calm. That’s the secret sauce.”
