Vice President of Design for Opel/Vauxhall, Mark Adams, first joined the company back in 2002. For his first project, he was tasked with designing the Insignia concept, which at the time hadn’t even been given a name yet. Whatever he came up with, he wanted to design something sculpted and with emotion, but still wanted it to convey the no nonsense functionality of a German car. He coined his ‘sculpted design meets German engineering’ design philosophy in 2005 after designing the car, a mantra which he’s stuck with ever since. So where is Opel design heading next? A recent interview with the lead designer gives us a little insight.
Adams said the Insignia was the first car that carried the ‘sculpted design meets German engineering’ values. With the philosophy, he wanted to create consistency, something that would last. So he and the design team have stuck with the same idea for every model they’ve redesigned since and will continue to do so with every new Opel model going forward.
“The good thing is that our philosophy doesn’t limit us, but gives us a lot of creative freedom instead. It provides a frame within which we can work, yet it doesn’t restrict us. We have a very broad range of customers, which is why we need different cars each with its own individual personality,” said Adams. “We have carried this philosophy with every new vehicle since the Insignia. It is currently reflected in our entire model range: The Astra, Meriva, and Zafira Tourer all embody it. So do the cars that have expanded our portfolio, the Ampera, Mokka, Adam, and Cascada. For example, the Adam is clearly an Opel, but it has a totally different personality than the Insignia.”
Going forward, consumers can expect the Opel design language to adopt features from the rakish Monza concept, just as Opels of today did with the Insignia concept.
“The seed for Opel Design 2.0 has been planted in the Monza concept, which will define the design of our production vehicles for the next eight to 10 years,” said Adams. “It takes some of the well-known features, gives them a fresh, new interpretation, and executes them in a contemporary way.”
Other ways Opel is looking to advance its products is in ease of usability and technology. Changes in technology can alter the overall design for vehicles in the future, especially interior designs.
“Today, drivers use a touchscreen to communicate, but voice recognition will soon take over. This also contributes significantly to safety since it allows drivers to keep their hands on the wheel. And Opel intends to be the leader in this field with our next generation of cars. Our focus is on making vehicles simple to use,” Adams said.
The full transcript from the interview is available for viewing on Opel’s website.
Comments
I expect the Opel will also show us a lot of the new Buick too.
People like the Regal now just wait till they get some of this.
Opel design is a huge bright spot at GM.
Chevy needs Adams to do something to tweek “heart beat” design.
Maybe Chevy & Opel, the mainstream brands, should work together as opposed to the Buick link up?
Why? Chevy cars failed in Europe…why should Opel now work together with Chevy? Chevy cars were/are not mainstream in Europe. They are low cost entry-level while Opel based cars are semi-premium or entry-luxury in the US. So Opel fits much better to Buick than Chevy.
Opel will use some Chevy components: for example the next Agila will be based on the next gen Chevy Spark, The next gen 2018 Corsa will use a Chevy platform. But that’s OK because these cars are low cost cars and people don’t see the platform.
If there would be a situation comparable to Australia for example, so that Opels are only rebadged Chevys like Holden does then Opel and GME will fail…that’s simply a fact.
In the maisntream segment you have simply to offer higher quality in Europe, European design and European feeling if you want to have sucess in Europe.
Every Chevy based Opel in Europe failed….best example Opel Antara…
Two reasons: Ford has raised the bar, with the new Focus taking on a more premium edge. Vehicles (compact range) like Adam and Astra would helped Chevy better compete in N A.; Chevy already sells the Corsa based Sail in China, as an example. More premium Chevy cars aid transaction cost.
In addition, GM could save a lot of money by designing and producing less cars. Does the world really need both Cruze and Astra? PSA its cutting its line up from 45 down to 25. With Chevy out of Europe, GM could do the same. Selling Opel compacts and sub compacts in Europe only its a waste. These products should be rebadged as Chevy globally. Such a move would have no impact on Buick given that the partnership mainly deals in niche offerings like Cascada, and smaller midsized cars like Insignia.
Opel has a beautiful line up that should be globally rebadged as Chevy or Buick depending on segment and market.
You know that the Buick Verano in the US and the Excelle GT/XT which sell very good (top ten) in China are based on or nearly identical to the Opel Astra?
And Chevy does not leave Europe completely…in Russia both Chevy and Opel will be sold side by side also in the future.
Opel and Chevy will cooperate in the future when it comes to platforms. That’s a good solution but you can’t replace one lineup by another as i now happens in Australia. You have to respect regional tastes. That is something GM should have learned in the past. Rebadging doesn’t work anymore at least in Europe where it never worked.
Chevy needs to do better than Spark, Sonic & Cruze if it wants to surpass Toyota and Food both in volume and transaction costs.
Its a pity GM land locks its best cars in Europe. Ford has done a great job developing models appropriate for numerous global tastes.
@ Stephen Marcus “Does the world really need both Cruze and Astra?” – No it just needs the Astra!
@ The German: For once I agree with you!! lol
“Mark Adams Sheds Light On Buick’s Future Design Language”
Fix’d.
No, Opel and Buick fit perfectly together much better than Opel and Chevrolet would do. What is mainstream to you in North America doesn’t have to be the same in Europe or elsewhere in the world, e.g engines, quality, car body styles etc.. What would be a mainstream car in Monaco or Hong Kong maby a Ferrari or a S-Class? In Europe, our bestsellers are mainly compact, city and subcompact cars (VW Golf, Renault Clio, Ford Focus, Fiat 500, …), while in the US your best selling car was a truck. In general, Europeans still like to buy quality or premium small or compact cars, apart from the economic crisis in the EU, whereas in the US you would get for the same money a mid-size sedan. I don’t think Americans would spend thousands of Dollars on small cars like the Europeans or even the Japanese, but on luxury pick-up lines such as GMC’s Denali. Chevrolet sells its cars in South America or in countries such as Thailand or India, where cheap small cars are in demand. There would be a conflict of interest for both Chevrolet and Opel. Opel needs quality and stylish cars in Europe and Chevy needs cheap cars such as the Spark to compete with its rivals, e.g. in India or in South America. Our mainstream Euro cars are often sold as semi-premium or luxury cars in the US. For us the Insignia (Regal) is our Toyota Camry. Opel needs Buick to utilize future cars and platforms. A Buick Regal only sold in North America and China would be too expensive to engineer and the same can be said about Buick’s German counterpart in Europe. Chevrolet is big enough to utilize most of its cars and platforms on its own despite its absence in Europe from 2015.
GM needs to look at Chevy, Opel, Buick & Holden as ONE brand, then adjust line up, design language, powertrains and the like par market.
Low volume EU specific cars should be sourced from PSA since the out line of a partnership still exists.
Areas of overlap like Malibu/Insignia & Impala/Lacrosse are already dealt with and should serve as a model for diversification.
GM needs a solid strategy for Chevy cars. The brand has fallen far behind Ford in both sales and transaction costs. Also, GMs scattered brands are expensive to maintain, especially Opel, so sharing with Chevy, Buick & Holden will further reduce cost.
In regions like Brazil, where there is no Opel or Buick, Chevy should push up into luxury, becoming a bigger brand.
“Sculpted design meets German engineering”? I thought Opel’s design language is called “sculptural artistry meets German precision”.
@Stephen Marcus You want to sell vehicles with the same design language, quality,.. in the same showroom or on the same market but under different badges? How does it look when a Chevy Astra stands next to a Buick Cascada and what should a Malibu look like if the Insignia is already sold as a Buick or do you want to sell a salad-mix lineup, while the Malibu still looks like a Chevy and has its own design but doesn’t fit to the rest of the family? It doesn’t make sense. You could simply sell all these vehicles either as Chevrolets or as Buicks then.
I see a lot of ways GM could mimic Ford in terms of a similar NA/EU line up to gain scale, cut cost. Vauxhall does a much better job of competing against Ford in the UK than Chevy does against Ford here in the States.
Clearly Chevy & Buick can’t share identical design language. It would be rather easy for GM to lightly reskin (front and rear facadia/a little sheet metal). Such an approach would work out great for the next gen Corsa, Meriva, Adam & Astra. This would provide for far greater scale meaning cost savings.
Buick can have its own relationship with Opel co developing niche and higher end models. In this case, maybe these models could share certain design elements unique to the Opel/Buick partnership.
With such a business plan, GM could dramatically cut costs while justifying the existence of three over lapping brands. Opel would end up serving as a sort of core.
At this point, overlapping quality will not be a problem given Chevy and Buicks almost identical quality rankings. Ford deals with this by sltering trim from market to market.
GM is similar to a big company like VW group. GM has the great advantage that it is a much larger scale enterprise gm US-EC. GM needs to do his super units together and share the best, and this is the only benefit. American cars and European cars, the GM and the uniqueness of it is not anyone on the other. GM’s management needs to do a decent job in order to benefit from its uniqueness in the world.
VW Group is similar but offers only euro cars and the VW Group’s in-house competition is already in my mind the confusion and mess with competition, because at the moment they are VW cars mdia least in my opinion it is worth buying. before it is worth the Audi parts or Seat, Skoda. VW itself is the most pointless. VW is also a good and decent but do not bother to buy products just because other VW group are a lot more useful.
For example, consider the VW Golf R vs Audi S3 or 7 Seat Leon Cupra.
GM needs to keep his American line and to keep European Opel and specificities and peculiarities of the line, they have to share with each other the best, and it’s a super result.
Europe is a very special, unique and valued the right of American cars.
New Chevrolet Cadillac and the U.S. has always been fierce. that some of the cars on European pledge U.S. had the best logos but also went over some of these sold quite well but did not really approve. America, for example, could provide GM Europe GM vehicles as well as European and U.S. vehicles offers turn that is your market.
BUICK really is a producer who is also a more European but more has to do everything right. BUICK would be nice if the U.S. would maintain its own history, style, and it would also offer GM’s European vehicles such as logos only way.
I think many here miss the big picture here by trying to fit each brand into a specific segment with a specific dance partner.
I suspect we will see this in the future.
Buick and Opel will share many cars in the lower end luxury sport market. But that is not to say that Opel will not continue to sell cheaper and more basic cars too. I would look to VW and see that Opel will match VW in most models but will also have some models that could compete with the lower end Audi. In essence Opel will take the place of Chevy and still offer the cars they were going to share with Buick. We will just not see Buick share in all the cheaper and utility Opels here.
I see Opel sharing more models with Holden too.
As long as GM does not sell two of the same models in one market then they will be fine. Case in point do not expect a Opel and Buick to share the same market anywhere.
of course, are also sold cheaper and simpler vehicles and so are almost all carmakers MB, BMW and AUDI as well. greater part of the car manufacturer wants to offer something for everyone and for every one, and it is also a competition. GM advantage and uniqueness is that the U.S. market and the EU. VAG is preserved but the EU and they will start to eat itself. today it is well made, it should be pretty good as VW Audi but they’re already so that VW has the least sense to buy. VAG preserved competes EU market for its own products as well as the group are and it’s beneficial. for example, is a good example of VW GOLF R AUDI S3 SEAT Leon Cupra-SKODA OCTAVIA VR.
GM just has so many unique features, differences and opportunities, and it is very useful konsernile GM. I hope GM is going to get better eirnevatel markets.
Yes, I’m a fan of GM. ahhaaa.
In this uncertain economy, especially now with Russia & Ukraine, VW would benefit from a smaller European auto range considering gross margins are only at 2.7%.
PSA cutting back to 25 models on half the platforms might be a good plan for even the healthy car makers to roughly follow.
Opel is lucky in that it imports enough from Korea and East Europe allow for a sizable line up at a growingly affordable cost.