INNOVATION SPECIAL ....'We Designers Did Not Want a Potato-like Car'

'We Designers Did Not Want a Potato-like Car'

Peter Wouda

Head of exterior design, Volkswagen Design Center Potsdam

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THE CHALLENGE:

To create a production-model passenger car that gets more than 260 miles per gallon.

WE WANTED SOMETHING WITH PRECISION.

THE TURNING POINT:

Peter Wouda's team slashed the car's weight by employing new materials (carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer is nearly 30% lighter than aluminum) and ruthlessly editing. For instance, power steering was nixed. "It's a big, heavy module," Wouda says.
"If the car is light enough and the wheels thin enough, you don't need it." The design team borrowed AERODYNAMIC features from nature. During a clash ­over form—"a roundish shape is very good for airflow, but we designers did not want a potato-
like car; we wanted something with precision, which is a Volks­wagen value"—they drew inspiration from sharks, which are ­­­extreme­ly aerodynamic.

THE EXECUTION:

A tapered rear reduces drag. Up front, echoes of a shark can be found "in the very sharp horizontal edge above the eyes—the headlights. It almost looks like a shark's nose, and it splits the wind quite nicely."