As Jaguar reveals the I-Pace pure electric car at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show, I sit down with the marque’s creative director Ian Callum to discuss the challenges he faced designing a sustainable product, and the excitement of creating a family of electric cars with a distinctively Jaguar flavour.
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As we start to bid farewell to 2016 and welcome a new year with all its fresh promises, I started to put together a list of my top five interesting speculative car design moments of this year. BMW Group’s Vision Next 100 collective of concept cars for MINI, BMW and Rolls-Royce was the first to come to mind as these vehicles are a bed of vibrant ideas, begging to be explored. Then came Bentley, and the marque’s softly radical approach to the future of luxury in the world of ecological, autonomous driving.
Tesla, of course, had to be included for its dismissal of the strict automotive codes in so many ways – with the products, the people, the stores, the approach. Jaguar Land Rover ‘s impressive contemporary life cannot be ignored.
And Volvo, for as skeptical as I initially was about the company under a very different ownership, the brand has really moved forward in new and exciting ways to remain Swedish in spirit yet rather than be a Scandinavian parody, the marque now represents a nation that is global, connected and therefore exciting.
There are, of course, others doing equally interesting work too – Lexus with its uniquely brilliant vernacular, Mercedes-Benz and its confident design language, Maserati’s successful venture into new segments, Audi’s clear visual language, Volkswagen’s brilliant electric world car proposition. But five was my number so…
… here’s my list and in no particular order: via ForbesLife
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The idea of luxury has evolved to include a much more complex set of values. Time, authenticity, legacy, access, resource, journey, skills and memory – these are just some of the concepts joining the more classic terms associated with luxury. And going forward, when the car becomes essentially a high-tech gadget in the age of autonomous driving, what will define true luxury? In the second of our interviews with some of the leading creatives, Ian Callum, Jaguar Cars design director, offers his thoughts on the subject.
Design Talks. How would you define modern luxury?
Ian Callum: One aspect of modern luxury is appreciating old world luxury, to understand the essence of authentic materials, noticing and understanding the value of these, understanding the pleasures it gives rather than the ostentatiousness of it.
As car designers our job is to understand our occupants’ emotional and physical needs, and to respond to this. We therefore use this word wellbeing a lot in our design process. To create a sense of real luxury is to essentially give a sense of wellbeing, to create an environment where our customers enjoy the experience, much like you would in a great restaurant or a modern hotel. It means forming a sanctuary. It certainly isn’t about showing off their wealth.
DT. How does this apply to Jaguar design?
IC. What this means in terms of Jaguar cars is a more exciting and involved environment in our sports cars like the F-Type, and a more comfortable and luxurious one in cars like the XJ. It means experimenting and investing in perfumes, smells, ambience lighting. It means looking into new luxury materials.
DT. How do you see this being unique to the marque?
IC. Jaguars are exotic cars, and people buy our cars because they are exciting. But part of this means taking up space so for us it is a case of balancing the exciting with the comfort. So our first priority is the packaging of the vehicle, the physical side of it – the very makeup of comfort, seat value, versatile occupant sitting space…
We then look at ambiance by simplifying the visual architecture. Forms and shapes need to be easily understood, but not be cold. And we offer choice – for a modern twist carbon, and warmer textures such as wood, leather and even cashmere, which we’re working on, to create a sense of softness in the future. We need to see beyond the immediate needs of our customer.
DT. How does technology fit into this?
IC. Beyond this are technology and connectivity, and the visual and verbal connections. The infotainment system has to be as sophisticated as any modern luxury living space. Sound is very important to a British brand, a great quality sound system, and for us it means working with technology companies like Meridian who share our values.
DT. There is usually an element of surprise in your cars, such as the gear leaver in the XJ that pops up when the engine turns on for a sense of theatre…
IC. Yes, Jaguar cars need to offer a little sense of fun, tongue-in-cheek humour and a bit of theatre – if the customer gets it, then brilliant and if not, it doesn’t really matter! We’re doing different surfaces and patterns, which you’ll discover, perhaps hidden in the glove box. The idea is to make people smile.
DT. How do you see the future of luxury car design in the context of driverless cars?
IC. Honestly I don’t know yet! But the first stage will be semi-driverless cars where the driver has the option to let the car be piloted autonomously. All this would mean at this stage is that the infotainment system used by other occupants can extend to the driver. But for safety reasons occupants will still need to be seated [traditionally] and strapped in.
However, for the time being electric cars offer huge possibilities in terms of the architecture of the car for more interior space. Space is increasingly luxury and this is something that we’re working on at the moment.
Read our interview on the subject of modern luxury and car design here.
Read more about Jaguar design here.
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The F-Pace is Jaguar‘s first sports utility in its 70-year history. Designing an SUV was not an easy task for a marque associated with a low, long and sleek vernacular, and with such a rich sports car heritage. ‘The customer wanted one,’ admits Ian Callum, ‘It is a practical car but with the spirit of Jaguar,’ adds the design director.
We’re in Frankfurt at the biannual international motor show. The previous evening the F-Pace proved its claim as the ‘sportiest SUV’ by breaking the Guinness world record, and defining gravity, on the largest ever loop the loop completed by a road car. Witnessing stunt driver Terry Grant race inside the 19.08m tall, 360-degree circle was pretty spectacular.
The F-Pace unveiled at Frankfurt is a production car closely based on the 2013 C-X17 concept study. It’s underpinnings are the marque’s lightweight aluminium architecture which has allowed the design team the freedom to create a car with ‘latent poise, a svelte car with attitude,’ smiles Callum.
‘Of course a crossover is vertically more challenging,’ admits Al Whelan as we caught up with him on the Jaguar Land Rover show stand, ‘but in many ways the intensive aluminium architecture helped us set up the building blocks,’ says the chief designer, adding, ‘You get this right, and the Jaguar traits follow from that.’
It also allowed for a roomier cabin. The F-Pace can accommodate five adults and there is a versatile 650/1740-litre cargo space. The doors come alive with Jaguar’s signature blue ambiance lighting, and the optional panoramic roof expands almost the entire length of the car suggesting a more spacious cabin.
This is a highly intelligent car too, featuring the marque’s latest 8-inch touchscreen and infotainment system, with an optional 10.2-inch InControl Pro system, which can connect up to eight devices to a wi-fi hotspot in the car.
Whelan sees most of the competitors in the small crossover category producing quite similar proportions, ‘long overhangs and short rear overhangs, and balanced looking side views,’ he says.
So, when two years ago the team came to envisage a Jaguar crossover with the C-X17 concept, Callum insisted on taking the marque’s most recent designs, in particular the DNA of the F-Type coupé, as inspiration.
Whelan explains they set out to create a unique typography with the F-Pace ‘with a long bonnet, lots of tension on the side view, and of course big wheels,’ he smiles. ‘The key was to keep it sleek and exciting and I think we have achieved this.’
The F-Pace is handsome in the metal – subtly translating the Jaguar form language to a car that by nature should defy this. Callum had asked his design team to embrace Jaguar’s sporting heritage, extract some of the theories from the evocative cars in the company’s rich back catalogue, and apply it to the F-Pace.
The overall vision was ‘for it to be softer, more refined, and more muscular interpretation,’ notes Whelan. ‘We introduced the two strong character lines from the F-Type coupé, the long front fender and the rear haunch… and it all started to work.’
Nargess Banks
A full report from the Frankfurt Motor Show was published in Wallpaper*.
Read more about Jaguar design here.
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Jaguar was in the process of reinvention when design director Ian Callum sketched his first XF in 2007. It was to be an entry-level car, attracting new customers and debuting the marque’s new design.
The sporty coupé body was an unusual proposition for premium business car at the time, as was the bold interior design. It grabbed our attention and succeeded in presenting a new, confident Jaguar brand. Now, and with a small XE in production and a family of cars that include the F-Type sports car and F-Pace crossover in the horizon, it was time for a new XF.
The base of this second-generation model is Jaguar’s lightweight modular architecture. The design team worked closely with engineering to harness this and conceive a car that is lighter yet stiffer, highly aerodynamic, more compact in proportion yet roomier inside.
So at 4,954mm long; the car is 7mm shorter and 3mm lower than the previous model, yet the shorter front overhang and stretched wheelbase has allowed for 15mm more legroom and up to 27mm more headroom. The XF boasts exceptionally low aero drag of 0.26cd, achieved through a range of interesting design tweaks.
Furthermore, the fusion of light aluminium for the body panel, and a mix of high strength steel in key structural areas, means the car is now stiffer and lighter by some 190kg than the previous car for a much smoother ride as we were to discover on the Circuito de Navarra and the Navarran Pyrenees where we put the car to the test.
This expansive and hugely dramatic landscape in northern Spain can instigate a compelling story for most vehicles, yet the XF, though essentially a business car destined for less exotic locations of urban settings and motorways, almost ‘owned’ these empty roads that snake high into the lush green uplands.
In terms of design, the XF is very much an evolutionary one that continues exploring the distinct silhouette of the original model whilst introducing a more vertical assertive mesh grille, shorter front overhang and the distinctive power bulge that now runs all the way up the elegant long bonnet.
Callum points to the waistline which sits at a more horizontal level now, ‘the strongest element of this car visually,’ he calls it. ‘We’ve worked very hard to create a shoulder line that is much more elegant, stronger yet relaxed in many ways sitting underneath the window graphic of the car,’ he says explaining how it ties the whole car together.
There are extra rear windows, which, coupled with the optional panoramic sunroof, really improves the feeling of spaciousness at the cabin. The car’s behind has also been given a distinctive look with an interpretation of the LED tail lights first featured on the recent F-Type, replete with a rather lovely chiselled boot line, thus creating a narrative between the siblings.
The brief for interior design was to retain the sense of theatre introduced in the original XF but improve the materials and textures so that it evidently sits above the entry-level XE. The layered instrument panel now swoops the width of the car merging into the doors emphasised by singular stitching and it featuring the XJ signature Riva Hoop design.
This is a hugely connected car too, digital yet at the same time offering high levels of quality and craftsmanship and plenty of tactile surfaces – soft leather, warm wood and shinny chrome elements. There is a reconfigurable TFT instrument cluster, a 10.2-inch touch screen containing all the infotainment and entertainment information, and laser head-up display for convenient navigation.
‘One of the things that is great about the interior is the theatre of it,’ muses Callum. So the rotary shift control and air vents magically spin open when you turn on the engine. ‘It’s a wonderful moment when they spin up to say hello to you. It gives you that sense of occasion.’
With the XF, Jaguar has shown that it can propose an alternative in an otherwise crowded and often conservative executive car market. This product is a perfect blend – infusing elements of the marque’s sports car knowhow with sprinkles of quirkiness for that added bit of magic.
The new Jaguar XF is on sale from September.
Read our previous articles on Jaguar.
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