Why auto makers spend time and money on concept cars

A radical new car was rolled out of General Motors’ design studio in 1938. This two-door convertible was like nothing else on the road, with a streamlined shape, hidden headlights and no running boards. The Buick Y-Job, as it was called, was the dream of GM’s styling head, Harley Earl, produced as an exercise for new designs and features. But it would never be seen in a showroom – despite influencing decades of styling for Buick and other manufacturers – because it was never meant for production.

It was the world’s first concept car.

GM

Since the Y-Job, the motoring world has enjoyed – and sometimes suffered – the styling whimsy of auto makers with radical concept cars meant for a display stand instead of the road. Companies spend millions of dollars with designers, sculptors, fabricators and engineers, exploring their creativity and vision of the future, all while looking for the biggest “oooohs” at major auto shows.

The Mazda RX-Vision concept stole the Tokyo Motor Show in November – it was notable for a return to the rotary engine but also was strikingly sexy with its low stance, sumptuous curves and lack of sharp creases. Mazda officials said the car hints at the future of the RX line but offered few details.

Mazda

“This is a dream we want to realize someday,” said Iwao Koizumi, Mazda’s chief designer. “In order to show our dreams to the people, we create these concepts.”

Koizumi said that concept cars are important from a business aspect in developing a future design language and expressing the direction of the company to consumers – but the consumer has more input in the company’s direction than they might realize. “People’s reaction is something that is really important,” Koizumi said. “It can even impact our business policies.”

AP

Meaning that, if you like it, they might build it. It’s happened before; public reaction to Volkswagen’s Concept One at the 1994 North American International Auto Show was so vocal, VW had almost no choice but to build the New Beetle, a close representation of that concept. A year later, Audi showcased its TT concept and, partly due to public response, began production three years later.

We’re unlikely to see the Honda Project 2&4 concept in showrooms any time soon, however. This open-cockpit four-wheeler is just too radical to be road legal.

However, as company founder Soichiro Honda once said: “Creativity lies within you. Awaken it not by thinking, but by putting your ideas into action.” It’s a philosophy that continues with the brand to this day.

Bloomberg

“Honda is quite special in this sense,” said Martin Petersson, a designer on the motorcycle side. “We run a yearly competition for concept ideas where it’s completely open and free; it can even start with a sketch on a napkin.

“It’s a nice break from our normal projects [of production vehicles], which are cost-driven, emissions-driven, all of these things. So it’s a way for you to take a deep breath and step back. And then it’s also a way to take a pulse and try to make something that has real impact.”

For Adrian van Hooydonk, director of group design for BMW, concept cars aren’t just for taking the pulse of the company’s clients, but also for setting pulses racing with wild designs that are meant to build a connection with its road cars.

“They are relevant for our customers, because you want to know that the company you buy your car from also has ideas for the future,” van Hooydonk said. “We tend to build concepts because we want to give customers something to dream of and then, with our production models, we can fulfill those dreams.

“They don’t come for free, let’s say. But if you see how much coverage they get – they travel more than I do. So it can explain our message globally and, for us, that pays off.”

The lifespan of most concept cars usually runs about a year, until the next round of the car show circuit, which brings increased expectations of even wilder designs. Some end up in the manufacturers’ museums, some are sold to private collections and some end ignominiously, being crushed or dismantled. But they all allow auto makers, their designers and engineers to push the envelope of style.

“When you have something on your screen that you really shouldn’t be working on because you have something else to do,” Petersson said, “and your boss walks past and says nothing, it’s because he knows that that’s the company spirit as well. You just have to let these things bubble up and not cut it down.”