BMW has given us a preview of future vehicle construction and design with the unveiling of the new GINA Light Visionary concept car. The car’s new name stands for ‘Geometry and Functions In “N” Adaptions,’ and its design showcases a number of future-oriented production and functionality concepts.
The GINA has an almost seamless outer textile skin that stretches across a movable metal substructure. The car’s front and sides, including the doors, create one single uninterrupted, seamless whole that converges to form a structural unit.
To create this flexible body, the GINA has dispensed with the usual body elements found on production vehicles such as front apron, bonnet, side panels, doors, wheel arches, roof, trunk lid and rear deck. Instead, a new structure with a minimum amount of components has taken their place.
The special fabric is supported by a metal wire structure. At specific points, the high-strength metal is enhanced by carbon struts with a higher flexibility. The design of the frame has also been optimized to support the aspects of crash-safety, stiffness and ride handling, entirely without an outer surface.
The driver can move parts of the substructure by means of electro-hydraulic controls. This will also change the shape of the outer skin, which can thus be adapted to suit the current situation, the driver’s requirements and can also enhance the car’s functional range. The most striking example of this is the headlight design. In normal position, when the headlights are not active they are hidden under the special fabric cover. As soon as the driver turns on the lights, the contour of the front end changes.
BMW has a tradition of revealing its future technologies with eccentric concept vehicles and the new construction methods previewed in the GINA could make it to production one day. However, for now, the GINA is strictly a research model designed to present new ideas.
Successful design arouses desire. In order to achieve this, it is more crucial than ever before that car manufacturers create the conditions that allow customers to establish a close relationship with their cars. Therefore, designers seek ways to promote and intensify people’s identification with their car that reach beyond pure aesthetics. In the premium segment in particular, customers demand cars that stir emotions and allow them to express their individuality. BMW Group Design has set another deepened objective for designing new cars that moves today’s consumers and their demand for enhanced utility and more versatility to the top of their agenda. An innovative concept introduced by BMW Group Design prepares the ground for this new approach: the GINA (Geometry and Functions In ”N” Adaptions) principle grants more freedom for car design. It allows the creation of products with a design and functional range that express individuality and meet the wide variety of requirements of those who are using them.
In the 21st century, customers approach their purchasing decision with a high degree of assertiveness, clearly defined requirements and subjective conceptions- particularly when it comes to selecting their means of transport. In recent years, the interests and priorities that motivated them have changed and, more importantly, they have become considerably more diversified. This development will continue in the future. Today, the BMW Group is already responding to the highly diversified range of customer requirements and heightened expectations by providing services such as a substantially more varied product range, ever increasing possibilities for personalization and requirement-oriented production among others.
By introducing the GINA philosophy, BMW Group Design presents ways of meeting these challenges in the future. The philosophy expresses the readiness and ability of BMW Group Design to consider individual customer requirements as an integral part of car development. Christopher E. Bangle, Head of BMW Group Design, speaks with conviction when he says: ”Personal customer requirements will broaden the context of our products and change the core values that define our industry along the way.” For more than ten years now, these issues have inspired Bangle’s ideas. Time and time again, these ideas have been motivating the BMW Group Design team to break new ground and to find pioneering solutions. These results have spawned new customer expectations which in turn inspires designers to develop further innovations.
