Inside the 2012 Chicago Auto Show
Our design team attended the Chicago Auto Show this past week to check out the newest trends in the automobile industry. The show is considered the smallest of the five North American auto shows, but the largest in terms of space. While it’s not as big as other shows, there were still some major production debuts and interesting highlights.
Much like last year, there were a number of concept cars at the show—from the Kia Track’ster to the Lexus LF-LC and Toyota NS4. This year, there were also a lot more electric cars than seen in years past.
The Kia Track’ster has a form similar to the Kia Soul, but with a bright orange accent color. We’re not sure if this one will ever make it to market, but some of its features might be implemented in Kia’s current line of Soul’s.
Kia Track'ster
The Lexus LF-LC is a 2+2 rear-drive gas/electric sports coupe that focuses on a new style for Lexus. The car features touch-screen controls to operate windows, mirrors, seat adjustments, and audio. While the new style is very appealing, the production version is meant for hybrid power.
The Lexus LF-LC Concept Car
The Volvo “Concept You” is a new luxury sedan with a coupe look that features some pretty cool touch-based controls. The car features a very futuristic interior with the use of materials, colors, and front seats that appear to float.
Volvo "Concept You"
Toyota revealed their NS4 concept in Detroit and also showed it at the Chicago show. The advance hybrid concept, which distinguishes itself as separate from the Prius family, has a heavy focus on connectivity and is designed as a new mid-size concept for potential launch in markets worldwide by 2015.
Toyota NS4 Concept
The Chevrolet Sonic Boom concept was also pretty interesting. Chevy worked with audio system maker Kicker to mount specially fitted speakers on its rear hatch and is designed like a set of jet engines facing rearward. The other noticeable feature on this car was the matte finish. We saw this on a few cars at the show and really liked the look of it.
Chevrolet Sonic Boom Concept
The Chevy Volt is unique among electric vehicles because you have two sources of energy—an electric source (the battery) that allows you to drive gas-free for an EPA–estimated 35 miles. When the battery dies, there’s also an onboard gas generator that produces electricity so you can go up to a total of 375 additional miles on a full tank. The one thing we didn’t like about this design was the black piece lining the bottom of the windows. It was covered with fingerprints and appears to get very dirty with just a touch.
Chevy Volt
A number of companies featured a stretched honeycomb pattern on their vehicles—including Land Rover, Range Rover, Chevy, Ford, Mercedes, and others. This pattern was found on a lot of the vehicle grills.
Stretched Honeycomb Patterns
Another major trend we noticed was the details and lighting in the headlights. LED lighting was very popular among the automobile manufacturers and special attention was paid to this area. As in years past, Volkswagen had their logo incorporated in the headlight design—something that further helps to brand their vehicle.
Headlight Details (Volkswagen in lower left)
It seems as though BMW is trying to further differentiate their Series 5 and Series 3 vehicles with their headlight design (as seen in the photo below).
BMW Series 5 (left) and BMW Series 3 (right)
We also really like the Audi A4 Allroad Quattro headlight design with its unique LED lighting.
Audi A4 Allroad Quattro
The photos below capture sheet metal trends among the various vehicles at the show.
Sheet Metal Trends
A few other cool cars we saw that featured intricate details included the 2012 Lexus LFA and the 2012 McLaren MP4-12C, which is known for impressive racing machines.
Lexus LFA
McLaren MP4-12C
We really enjoyed the show this year, and, as a product design team, we look forward to seeing what changes take place in the automobile industry in the year ahead and what concept cars become a reality.
Top
