How will environmental concerns influence the car designs of the future?
At the most fundamental level, sustainability is just a new problem to solve. I’ve lived under this before, whether it was the need to strengthen bumpers in the 70s, or improve aerodynamics in the ’80s, or deal with pedestrian safety regulations today. For the most part, sustainability will be solved in ways that don’t show up in the car design itself. It will be subtle under-the-skin differences in engines, and drivetrains, and technology. But if we believe that cars reflect their owner’s personalities, then what we are seeing here is a shift in the value system for customers where they want to reflect these responsibilities. At the same time, they want it to be understood that it is still okay to drive cars that are sporty or fun. Cars with future-oriented themes that looked like something out of Buck Rogers were rejected by the public as not too desirable. And now that has been replaced by the phenomenon of cars that look intelligent but not particularly sexy. That doesn’t include B
