BMW Shows the Many Ways to Skin a Car

Must car bodies really consist of solid, heavy, and costly materials?  With the GINA (”Geometry in N Adaptations”) Light Visionary Model, BMW Group’s Chief of Design, Chris Bangle, clearly suggests that they don’t.  Essentially, the car body is comprised of a malleable high tech fabric stretched over a skeletal carbon fiber and metal frame, which adjusts itself according to driving speed, road conditions, performance requirements, etc.  For example, the headlights operate like eyelids, to close when not in use, the hood splits open down the middle like a purse, to reveal the engine, and the handle-less doors bend upward to seemingly open themselves.  Not to give too much away, but these operations must be seen to be believed! (YouTube video below)

It is noteworthy that someone as influential within the world of auto design as Chris Bangle, would suggest such a completely new approach to car manufacturing, especially considering its potential to reduce manufacturing, recycling and materials costs in the process.  Along with such promise, GINA presents a number of questions which must be addressed before it may become the industry standard: How the car frame will withstand compressive failure in a crash, if the fabric will stretch or tear at high speeds to create drag on the car, how the fabric will allow for temperature control in hot or cold weather, or reduce engine noise during driving, and if the fabric itself can be derived from non-petroleum sources.  Surely such questions must be under current consideration by BMW’s design team, and although it may not be in production anytime soon, the GINA still offers a new and dramatic approach to material utilization within car manufacturing.  If achieved sometime in the future, the result will be cars that are lighter, dramatically more fuel efficient, with greater economy of materials, and potentially shorter manufacturing times - among the factors mentioned by prominent environmental and clean tech leaders who insist that auto manufacturers must transform their methods in order to produce the low impact vehicles of the future.  And it’s easy to imagine how the approach that GINA illustrates could lead to unique applications within other realms of design, such as consumer products, furniture, and perhaps even architecture.

For further details please watch the YouTube video describing the innovative and dramatic nature of the concept (Transformers, anyone?!!?)

BMW

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