People's Republic of Autos
One afternoon in late winter, an American automobile designer named Edward Wong strolled through this city's fashionable old French quarter. Something stopped him in his tracks.
It was a Volkswagen Polo, only it might have belonged to Count Dracula. The car was painted matte-black, as if it had been driven through a coal-dust car wash; it had an angular wing mirror on each side. The VW logo was bright red, placed like a drop of blood on the hood. "Wow, see that?" Mr. Wong said, stepping back for a better view. "It's already started."
What has started is this: Chinese consumers are yearning for vehicles that express their feelings about who they are. And car designers from around the world are flocking to China to witness the birth of a style of automotive design that is distinctly Chinese.
Elements of the new style are already visible on the streets of Shanghai and other big Chinese cities. A growing number of automotive-design powerhouses -- Germany's BMW AG, Italian design house Pininfarina SpA, General Motors Corp. -- are starting to throw money and talent at the challenge of creating cars for one of the world's fastest-growing automotive markets.
A Chinese-made coupe (top), from Chery Automobile Co., has an ample backseat and trunk; a car design based on the palanquin (front), offering privacy, has caught GM's eye.
For nearly 50 years after the Communist revolution in 1949, Chinese consumers made do with black bicycles and boxy black passenger sedans. Now, almost anything goes on the streets of China's big cities, whether it's spiky blue hair or lollipop-red sports cars. In the late 1990s, when sales of cars in China were just taking off, knockoffs of German or American cars sufficed. But Chinese consumers are starting to demand products that cater to their own tastes and desires. And with China now ranking as the world's fourth-largest car market, manufacturers are hiring designers who can tailor cars for Chinese drivers and translate their needs and aspirations into plastic and steel.
Volkswagen AG, long the leader in China, is adapting some of its models to the market, and it is sending Chinese designers to Germany for 18-month training sessions. Nissan Motor Co.'s chief designer, Shiro Nakamura, says he is looking to set up a small design office in China, most likely in Shanghai, to monitor Chinese trends.
This week, the big Shanghai auto show is set to feature models created to appeal to Chinese drivers, including a small two-door car with an ample rear end for a relatively roomy backseat. The car has a retractable hardtop that turns the coupe into a convertible. The coupe was designed by Pininfarina for Chery Automobile Co., of Wuhu, in China's Anhui province. Chery plans to bring the car -- referred to inside Chery as the Chery VV -- to the U.S. via a U.S. partner in about 2007.
Chinese car makers such as Chery have another goal: They want to create distinctive identities they can eventually use to win consumers in overseas markets. In some cases, they are looking abroad, to established design companies such as Pininfarina, for ideas.
"It took the Japanese [companies] 40 years to develop an identity, and the Koreans 20 years; I think the Chinese will get there in five to 10 years," says Ken Okuyama, Pininfarina's transportation design director.
Chery's quest has led it into a legal battle with GM, which has accused Chery of copying the look of its Chevrolet Spark for another Chery car, the Chery QQ.
What makes a car Chinese? Mr. Okuyama, Pininfarina's Japanese-born design director, led the design of the Chery coupe and also was the principal designer of the Ferrari Enzo, the Ferrari 612 Scaglietti and the Maserati Quattroporte. He says Chinese cars need different proportions than European or American vehicles. Chinese consumers need vehicles that marry luxury and practicality: Government officials and rich businessmen have chauffeurs to drive them during the work week, but they drive the same cars themselves during the weekend. Oftentimes, one vehicle is shared among an extended family.
The upshot, Mr. Okuyama says, is that most vehicles in China must be adapted to a wider range of use. Almost all require bigger rear passenger areas and more trunk space. Volkswagen's Audi unit, for instance, has extended the wheelbase of the new Audi A6 sedan by about four inches for the Chinese market.
Tradition suggests other differences. "There are cultural taboos in color choices, for instance. In China, white connotes death," says Verena Kloos, head of BMW's design unit, Designworks USA Inc., based in Southern California. The unit is looking in Chinese cities and elsewhere in Asia to open a studio, where it hopes to get an "understanding of 'premium' for BMW, Mini and Rolls Royce" -- all BMW brands -- in an Asian context, Ms. Kloos says. "It's a big challenge for us. It's a new field, and we would like to explore more."
GM, meanwhile, has introduced a series of vehicles designed and modified at a $50 million Shanghai facility. Now the U.S. auto maker plans to invest $250 million more to improve the studio.
In February, GM introduced a new Chevrolet Sail, a compact vehicle designed to appeal to buyers under age 30. And GM designers are redoing the styling of the business-like Buick Regal, giving it a "slightly more aggressive" look, says James Shyr, director of design at the Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center, a joint venture GM has with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. Buick is a long-established nameplate in China, dating back to early last century when it was the favored vehicle of Shanghai factory bosses and even part of the motorcade of the last emperor, Pu Yi.
Mr. Wong, the American, works in Shanghai heading his own design consulting company, SphereOne Ltd. He has just finished designing a new off-road vehicle for Beijing Jeep Corp, a joint-venture unit of DaimlerChrysler AG, and a crew-cab truck, a sport-utility vehicle and a car for Nanhai Fudi Auto Co., a private auto maker in Southern China's Guangdong province. He also contributed to the design of an athletic-looking compact that Tianjin FAW Xiali Automobile Co. wants to roll out by 2007.
Amid all the international attention, upstart Chinese design houses are seeking to assert their own ideas for the country's next generation of automobiles. "Foreign companies have the technology, but we are familiar with Chinese culture," says Lei Yucheng, chairman and chief executive of TJ Innova Engineering & Technology Co., a design center started by professors at Shanghai Tongji University. "The Chinese don't like Italian design. It's innovative but a little too different," he says. But German design "is a little too conservative."
Last year at the Pasadena, Calif., Art Center College of Design, GM sponsored a China Car design project, with the goal of forging ties with future designers who might one day work at its Shanghai operation. One promising talent it uncovered is Harry Sze, a Hong Kong-born design student. His luxury China Car was inspired by a palanquin, the covered chair fitted with shutters and blinds, slung on poles and carried by four people, which women of rank used for travel in imperial China. Mr. Sze's car, incorporating the palanquin's height and stately appearance, offers a "real big privacy area for rear passengers," Mr. Sze says. "You sit back in the rear, and people outside wouldn't be able to see you."
GM isn't interested in the student designs per se, says Bumsuk Lim, a transportation design instructor who taught the project. "They are interested in fresh, untainted approaches and students' different cultural backgrounds." GM isn't the only car maker to take notice of Mr. Sze: BMW and Volkswagen also have spotted him and now all three are competing to grab him, offering him paid internships. 风格鲜明成中国汽车市场新潮流
冬末的一个下午，美国汽车设计师 Edward Wong 在上海时尚、年代久远的原法租界漫步时，忽然被什么吸引住了视线。
这是一辆大众 (Volkswagen) 的 Polo 轿车，只是其主人似乎更应该是吸血伯爵 Count Dracula ：刷成墨黑的车身彷佛刚刚穿越过煤尘飞扬的地区，车身两边各有一个大角度的后视镜，而鲜红色的大众标志就彷佛是汽车前罩上的一滴血。“哇，看到了么？” Wong 一边说，一边退后几步仔细端详。
中国人渴望以车表达自我正在成为一股新的潮流。这在其他国家或许不新鲜，但对于中国这个年轻的汽车市场来说，这是一个显著的转变，给与竞争的国内外汽车生产商带来了挑战，他们开始纷纷注重培养不同风格的汽车设计人员。
越来越多的汽车业设计巨头，德国宝马汽车 (BMW AG) 、意大利 Pininfarina SpA 和美国通用汽车 (General Motors Corp.) 等已开始投入大量的资金和人才，为这个全球增长最大的汽车市场打造汽车。
在新中国建国近 50 年来，中国人的代步工具一直是黑色的自行车或是像箱子一样方方正正的黑色轿车。现在，中国大城市的街头可以看到几乎各色的代步工具。在 20 世纪 90 年代末中国汽车销售刚刚腾飞的时候，德国或美国款的仿制汽车就已经很让人满足了。但现在，中国消费者开始要求适合他们自己品味和要求的产品。随著中国成为全球第四大汽车市场，制造商们聘用了设计人员专为中国市场设计汽车，将当地消费者的需要和愿望融入新款汽车中。
中国市场长期的领先者大众汽车正在对一些车型进行改装，以适应中国市场的需要，并将中国设计人员派到德国接受 18 个月的培训。日产汽车 (Nissan Motor Co.) 的首席设计师 Shiro Nakamura 表示，正打算在上海设立一个办事处、监测趋势变化。
本周，上海的大型国际车展将推出旨在吸引中国消费者的车型，包括一款名为 Chery VV 的小型两厢轿车，大空间的汽车后部使得后排座位相对宽敞，同时这款轿车的顶盖可以伸缩、使其又可作为敞篷车使用。 Chery VV 由 Pininfarina 为中国芜湖奇瑞汽车 (Chery Automoblie Co.) 设计；奇瑞汽车打算在 2007 年左右通过美国合作伙伴进入美国市场。
中国汽车制造商们正在和知名的设计公司积极合作开发风格鲜明的汽车，以吸引海外消费者。奇瑞汽车这方面的努力也引发了与通用汽车的法律争端，后者指控奇瑞 QQ 的设计抄袭雪佛莱 (Chevrolet)Spark 。
什么样的车是中国车？出生于日本的 Ken Okuyama 是 Pininfarina 的设计总监，他领导了 Chery VV 的设计，他也是最新的 Ferrari Enzo 、 Ferrari 612 Scaglietti 和 Maserati Quattroporte 的主要设计师。他说，中国消费者喜欢的汽车结构比例与欧美不同，他们需要豪华实用相结合的汽车：政府官员和富豪商人有司机开车接送他们上下班，周末则自己驾车。而且，常常一辆车会由一个大家庭来使用。
Okuyama 称，结果中国大多数车都需要适应多种用途，几乎百分百地要求宽敞的后座空间和行李箱。比如，大众的奥迪 (Audi) 子公司就将中国市场的新奥迪 A6 轿车的前后轮轴距离伸长了 10 厘米。
传统文化还带来了其他特殊要求。“比如，颜色选择有一些禁忌。在中国，白色令人联想起死亡，”宝马位于加州南部的设计子公司 Designworks USA Inc. 的主管克鲁斯 (Verena Kloos) 表示。这家子公司正在考虑在中国城市或亚洲其他地方开设生产厂，希望在亚洲文化背景下拓宽宝马、 Mini 和劳斯莱斯 (Rolls Royce) 等品牌的接受度。
与此同时，通用汽车投资 5,000 万美元的上海工厂已推出了一系列专门设计和改良的车型。这家美国汽车制造商还计划再投资 2.5 亿美元改进这个工厂。
今年 2 月，通用汽车推出了一款新的雪佛莱赛欧 (Sail) ，这是一款目标客户群为 20 多岁的年轻人的紧凑型轿车。通用汽车设计人员还在调整商务系列车别克君威的风格，希望能让这款车稍稍具有一些霸气，泛亚汽车技术中心 (Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center 的设计总监夏尔 (James Shyr) 表示。泛亚汽车技术中心是通用汽车和上海汽车工业（集团）总公司 (Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp.) 合资建立的。别克在中国是一个历史悠久的品牌，最早可追溯至上个世纪初，当时它就是深受上海工厂老板们喜爱的一款车，甚至还是末代皇帝浦仪的车队成员之一。
Edward Wong 目前在上海工作，有自己的设计咨询公司 SphereOne Ltd 。日前，刚刚完成为北京吉普有限公司 (Beijing Jeep Corp.) 设计一款新的越野车的项目；北京吉普是戴姆勒 - 克莱斯勒 (DaimlerChrysler AG) 的一个合资子公司。 Wong 还为中国南方广东省的私营汽车制造商南海福迪汽车有限公司 (Nanhai Fudi Auto Co.) 开发了一款双排座卡车、一款运动型多功能车以及其他一款车。 Wong 称，这三款福迪汽车的设计大难题是要采用 90 年代中期的卡车底座，配置上适应现代中国街道的新外观。 Wong 还曾参与天津一汽夏利 (Tianjin FAW Xiali Automobile Co.) 计划于 2007 年推出的一款运动型紧凑车型的设计。
中国新兴的设计公司希望能创出自己的特色。“外国公司有技术，但我们更熟悉中国文化，”上海同济同捷科技 (TJ Innova Engineering and Technology Co.) 的董事长兼首席执行长雷雨成表示，“我们了解这个市场 ...... 中国人不喜欢意大利的设计；意大利的设计创意是很好，但有点太另类了，而德国的设计则有点太保守了。”同济同捷科技是上海同济大学的几个教授发起的一个设计中心。
