If the term holistic can be applied to automotive design, the concept car just brought to debut by Hyundai Motors Co. (Other OTC:HYMLF) in concert with General Electric Company's (NYSE:GE) GE Plastics would surely fit that description. The Hyundai QarmaQ concept is pushing the envelope in crossover utility vehicle design and construction. By the utilization of a high content of recycled plastics, derived mostly from discarded soft drink bottles, and some 29 other design, construction and material innovations, the QarmaQ boasts a weight reduction of 130 lbs as compared to vehicles of similar size and class. The designers claim that this results in a reduction in fuel usage equal to about one and a half SUV fuel tanks per vehicle per year. Granted, that may not seem like much when viewed on an individual vehicle basis, but multiply it by the total number of SUVs on the road and that's a lot of gallons saved.
Hyundai (pronounced hun-day) states that the QarmaQ Advanced Technology Demonstration Vehicle is a seamless blending of 30 environmentally progressive technologies that encompass the total vehicle design. Safety, economy, environment, and drivability are brought together in an aesthetically unique package that brings some strong design messages to the forefront of automotive engineering. Hyundai drops the gauntlet of change at the feet of the auto manufacturing world stating: "The QarmaQ is lighter, stronger, and more economical than any current production CUV in its class. It also offers significant recycling advantages both in construction and eventual disassembly. In short, it is a viable and realistic glimpse of the future potential of personal automotive transport. "
In addressing the issues of safety, Hyundai goes beyond the prime consideration of vehicle occupants and considers also the vehicle's surrounding world. Realizing that in continually compacting metro environments, our motor vehicles sometimes are involved with unavoidable pedestrian contacts, Hyundai has taken that as a design challenge and has trademarked QarmaQ's "Elastic Front" safety system and calls it "the world's first global pedestrian protection system." This system utilizes multiple advanced materials with inherent energy absorption properties and creates a vehicle skin that, when coupled with specialized underpanel construction elements, seeks to dissipate the force of impact and thereby reduce victim trauma in cases of vehicle/pedestrian collision. The Hyundai Elastic Front system is currently undergoing final testing to accomplish EEVC WG17 Phase2, Euro NCAP, and JNCA pedestrian impact requirement validation.
When expressing well-deserved satisfaction for its involvement in this concept vehicle development, Gregory A. Adams, vice president and general manager, GE Plastics -- Automotive, confirms, "GE Plastics is committed to developing greener, lighter, and aesthetically pleasing solutions to support our customers in creating vehicles with reduced environmental impact." His statements reveal that GE Plastics is committed to continued progress in creating material manufacturing solutions that provide economically and environmentally responsible options for the stringent demands of today's complex and evolving consumer product environment. The Hyundai QarmaQ news release proclaims a new emerging expanse in automotive design, stating: "As a joint project with GE Plastics, QarmaQ endowed designers with greater expressive freedom to create complex three-dimensional shapes that could not have been achieved with conventional production methods and materials such as metal and glass." It appears to this writer that, by virtue of emerging material technologies, the appeal of the stalwart steel automobile may soon reside significantly in annals nostalgic.
For aesthetic appeal, I give the QarmaQ an "A" grade, stating without reservation that I'd have no qualms about being seen driving one or having a sexy red and black version of it sitting prominently on my driveway. Far from being another "play" on the successful European design threads, the QarmaQ steps ahead of the current vehicle design flow and moves boldly into the future of motor vehicle appearance. Resembling something to be desired wrought from the minds of 3-D world futuristic game artists and designers, QarmaQ places within grasp those design elements which have remained largely the doodles of futuristic geniuses who have languished largely unrewarded in the significantly stagnant pools called American automotive design. Smoothness of flow and cleanness of design are characterized by this vehicle that is a visual sensory shock only when considered in the context of "why didn't I think of that."
It should be taken with a fair measure of shame that GE Plastics was required to reach beyond the "borders of Detroit" in order to properly display a new benchmark in automotiveworthy material creation and utilization. While our flagging Big Three are asleep at the wheel, and uselessly piddling with their dwindling flows of dollars, it becomes ever so clear that the innovative manufacturing of automobiles continues to be accomplished beyond their increasingly compromised influence, and leaves them choking in it's acrid dust.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-12-2007 @ 12:16PM
MR said...
those last couple of sentences were a wee bit over the top, stylistically.