The Design Challenge is among the most popular car design contests in North America. Now in its 7th year, the theme for the 2010 Design Challenge is to envision a lightweight, four-passenger vehicle that is comfortable, that delivers satisfactory driving performance with sacrificing styling. And most importantly, the vehicle must not exceed 1,000 pounds. Quite a challenge indeed.
Usually, only the Southern California automotive design studios participate in the contest, but this year, studios from Germany and Japan have also entered.
There isn’t a winner this year, but two: The Cadillac Aera and the Smart 454 WWT finished in a tie.
"The Cadillac Aera concept was designed to continue the forward-thinking imagination of Cadillac’s ‘art and science’ philosophy,” explains Jussi Timonen, lead designer for the project. “It's designed as a small city urban vehicle, but we approached this 2+2 touring coupe very much from the brand's luxury perspective. Every detail of the Aera was conceived to minimize the vehicle’s environmental impact without sacrificing the style, comfort and attention to detail that are hallmarks of the Cadillac brand.”
As for the smart 454 Weight Watch Technologies, Steffen Köhl, Head of Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design says: "As the prototype of the lightweight and environmentally friendly city car smart is predestined for this challenge. It met all the basic requirements. We just had to further optimise the lightweight construction coupled with a distinctive and individual design."
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Cadillac Aera (Photo: General Motors)
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| Honda Air (Photo: Honda) |
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| Maybach DRS (Photo: Mercedes- Benz) |
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| Mazda MX-0 (Photo: Mazda) |
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| Mercedes-Benz Biome (Photo: Mercedes-Benz) |
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| Nissan iV (Photo: Nissan) |
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| smart 454 WWT (Photo: Mercedes- Benz) |
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| Toyota NORI (Photo: Toyota) |
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| Volvo AIR (Photo: Volvo) |
