VW unveils wacky hover-car

‘Use your creative achievements tomorrow the public of the car!’ So goes Google Translate’s take on the header for a website Volkswagen has set up to solicit suggestions from the public on the future of China’s mobility.

The site has seen a massive influx of ideas, with several of the more interesting ones turning up at the recent Beijing motor show.

There’s an elegant logic to Volkwagen’s foray into China. Who better to mass-mobilise the socio-economic monolith that is the People’s Republic than the corporate monolith built around the People’s Car?

The connection is not lost on them. A year ago, the German giant launched the People’s Car Project (PCP) to help strengthen its attunement to Chinese consumer tastes. Harnessing the social networking trend that sees corporations inviting customers to ‘join the conversation’, the company set up a website inviting ideas from the people of China for their idea of the people’s car.

The result, the company says, has been overwhelming, with more than more than 119,000 ideas harvested from more than 33 million visitors.

The project heralds the future of automobile design, Luca de Meo, Volkswagen’s passenger car marketing chief, said in a statement.

“We are no longer just building cars for, but also with customers and at the same time initiating a national dialogue which gives us a deep insight into the design preferences, needs and requirements of Chinese customers,” de Meo said.

The project has given the company ‘valuable insight’ into what Chinese drivers are after, design boss Volkswagen Simon Loasby added. “The trend is towards safe cars that can easily navigate overcrowded roads and have a personal, emotional and exciting design.”

What have they come up with to such ends? Volkswagen used Beijing’s recent Auto China 2012 show to showcase three ideas that have so far gained enough momentum for further development.

First up comes a concept familiar to anyone who’s read those children’s books of the 1950s and 1960s promising we’d all go to the moon and glide around in wheel-less, magnetically suspended cars with bubble tops (and tail fins…).

It’s the ‘Hover Car’, described in the press release as ‘an environmentally-friendly two-seater city car which hovers just above the ground’ with the help of electromagnetic road networks. It looks like a big tyre.

They didn’t go too far into how civic authorities might realise the road infrastructure. In fact, not surprisingly, they didn’t go into it at all. Motor shows are not the place for such trifles.

Next comes the ‘Music Car’ which, says VW, ‘expresses the wish of many Chinese for individual automotive design’. Uh-oh… Sure enough: ‘Equipped with organic light emitting diodes, the exterior colour of the vehicle changes with the driver’s choice of music. More than ever, the car thus becomes a means of self-expression and a fashion statement for young drivers.’

Lastly comes the ‘Smart Key’, a possibly rather sensible idea involving a high-res screen built into a slim key-fob which ‘keeps the driver up to date on the fuel situation, climate conditions and the car’s security via the 3G network.’ It even affords you the opportunity to ‘monitor’ (or admire, or show your friends) your car from a ‘bird’s eye perspective’ through real-time satellite transmission.

The company is so pleased with the response it’s extended what was to be a one-year project indefinitely. Later this year it will be extended to take suggestions about how best to minimise the impact of China’s fast-growing car fleet on the environment. Submissions will initially be open to the scrutiny of the user community, then subsequently vetted by experts who will award prizes to the most usable ideas.

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