With the rise of the e-car, the grille seems doomed, because a hole for cooling air is no longer necessary. However? Independent car designer Niels van Roij describes how designers struggle with the disappearance of design traditions. And show you the do’s and don’ts.
Think of a Rolls-Royce and the chrome bow temple comes into view. Since the first cars appeared at the end of the 19th century, the grille has been the distinctive design element. He started his career as a simple protective cover for the vulnerable radiator, which was often chrome-plated for embellishment. That’s why the shiny metal still finds its way onto the car nose. Tradition!
A grille is no longer necessary on an electric car for its air-haul function. An internal combustion engine needs air and the hot block must also be cooled. Cooling air and combustion air are both superfluous with an electric motor.
What should designers do now? Simply closing a regular grille looks just as charming as boarded up windows in a villa. Then remove it completely? That degenerates into an extremely unpleasant sight. A no man’s land between the headlights, like a face without a nose. The grille is also a graphic expression that gives the car character and provides designers with a starting point from which important lines emerge. Think of the straight lines on the nose of a Rolls-Royce coming from the grille.
From dining tables to watermelons
Electrification therefore represents not only technical but also significant conceptual challenges for the car designer. Just like the grille, a large hood is no longer a requirement. Until recently, a large nose was needed to accommodate the colossal combustion engine. In a super sports car, the block is the size of a dining table, in a compact city car it is certainly the size of an additional copy. An electric motor doesn’t need all that space, it’s the size of a watermelon and fits easily under the back seat, or under a super short nose.
Shorten that nose? That apparently has advantages. The vehicle becomes more compact and therefore more manoeuvrable. Also lighter, because tens of centimeters of material disappear, which in turn has a positive effect on the range of the car, an important selling point for electric cars. And that also makes production cheaper.
The size of the nose also says little or nothing about the safety of a car. In the event of a collision, the energy is mainly absorbed by the cage construction that surrounds the passengers – small city cars and short-nosed company vans also score five stars in crash tests.
The Tragedy of the Multipla
But the disadvantages of a compact nose are more insurmountable. The biggest problem is the consumer. He doesn’t want a car without a nose. Whether or not his car becomes more compact, manoeuvrable, lighter and cheaper.
Buyers prefer to step into an SUV, such a four-wheel drive mastodon standing high on its legs. Towering boldly above the rest of the traffic, drivers look supremely over their far-reaching horsepower as a horse driver on the trestle. The noses in this most popular car segment are therefore long, large and tough. And the consumer finds that attractive.
Even if designers and manufacturers would like to change and improve the car in the evolution towards electric drive, the consumer does not just move along.
The widely maligned Fiat Multipla is an example of this dilemma. Talented Fiat designers dreamed about the ideal family car. So the Multipla MPV had a small, low nose. Just big enough for its compact petrol engine. As a result, there was room for a huge cabin, with two rows of three seats, plus generous luggage space. Lots of glass around even small children in the back could see out. With that large glass surface, the Multipla told the honest story visually, so through the design; it wasn’t a wannabe sports car with flat low windows, but the ultimate family car.
The top design ended up in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, but was not a commercial success. Its competitors with poorer driving characteristics, fewer seats and hardly any interior space sold much better.
Hard to sell
The quest for ‘honest’ design, which tells a story about the function of the car, should be the aim. Honest design works better in theory and in practice. For example, the high, heavy and spacious sports car is not useful on the track and the flat, fast, noisy and cramped passenger car is not exactly the ideal means of transport for going on holiday. However, that does not appear to be easy to sell to consumers.
The process is also complicated by the conceptual core values of the car brand that must be included in the design: what is the brand character, why does this manufacturer build cars? It Why Rolls-Royce’s aim is to build the ultimate luxury car. Ferrari’s business is to offer its customers the ultimate sports car. However, both brands have decided to develop SUVs due to crazy demand from the market.
Telling a good brand story through design is becoming the most important task for car manufacturers in the energy transition, because almost all other unique selling points of traditional combustion engine cars are lost. All electric cars are super fast, all are very quiet and none have a distinctive engine sound. The drive form switch is a tricky litmus test that will show whether car designers understand their multi-faceted trade.
Has the brand story become a caricature of itself or is it about things that matter? Installing a very large fake grille on an electric Mercedes does not make that car more Mercedes. Telling the ‘honest’ design story, through new and relevant stylistic interventions based on a bloodline from the past, can make such an electric newcomer more Mercedes.
Apparently not every car manufacturer feels at home in a future without a combustion engine and accompanying grille. This creates a confusing visual message. Relinquishing the grille as an ornament turns out to be better off for new automakers than most already existing ones.
This is not only due to the daring and quality of the designers. The progressive customers that start-ups focus on are more likely to settle for the grill-free nose. An Audi without a grille can definitely be a real Audi, but the main brand carrier, that graphic expression that gives the car character, is not yet liked by their consumers.
Design-strategically correct decisions at other car manufacturers, such as Hyundai and Lucid, show that the missing grille does not have to be a loss. Their all-encompassing design of the energy transition demonstrates that, in fact, the entire car can turn into an honest brand carrier.
Hyundai
The new Hyundai Ioniq 5 distinguishes itself from the rest because the entire car has become an honest brand carrier. A sturdy, but approachable car is drawn with accurate pointed folds, with a storage compartment in its short nose. Headlamps, fitted with small LED squares, sit in a black bar across the full width of the nose. A very unique face without a faux grille. Well done!
Mercedes
The Mercedes-Benz EQS demonstrates how not to do it. Until 2000, the brand built Teutonic cars. The bold body designs actually told the story of the brand’s legendary build quality. Now the face of the EQS is nothing more than a giant fake grille. The sealed ‘opening’ is flanked by equally false air intakes on the bumper corners. For example, the design of the EQS is unfair about the subcutaneous electrical innovation, a missed opportunity. Although the design thinking at Mercedes-Benz seems to be changing cautiously: the brand recently announced that it was looking for more efficient forms for its electric models.
Lucid
Lucid, a new American automaker, makes the Air. The minimalist body has a powerful appearance. Graphic elements such as dividing seams, windows and lighting define its character. The nose is tasteful with chrome accents around the headlights, bumper and fog lamps. The Air has a striking appearance without a pastiche grille.
Audi
Unfortunately, the Audi E-tron GT design team lacks the talent of newcomer Lucid, for example. The draconian imitation grille and angry headlights are unnecessarily aggressive and serve no relevant narrative purpose.
About the author
Niels van Roij focuses on car design with his design studio. He is active in building handmade cars and drew the Model SB, a Tesla-based model, among others; the Adventum Coupe, based on the Range Rover chassis; the Silver Specter Shooting Brake based on a Rolls-Royce. He is also co-owner of Heritage Customs, which carries out refining work on the new Land Rover Defender.
