Electric charge
China is a fertile breeding ground for
automotive start-ups. Lynk & Co, Nio,
Byton and Polestar have all recently
emerged fully formed, marking a shift
away from established brand names and
towards a connected, all-electric future.
These brand new brands are liberated
from a century of fossil-fuelled heritage
and show a willingness to completely
rethink the role of the car. Geely,
the biggest car company you’ve never
heard of, is building the Lynk & Co
EV sub-brand, as well as Polestar,a Volvo-affiliated performance marque.
Meanwhile, Envision’s elegant Sibylla
concept was designed by GFG Style
studio. Lei Zhang, CEO of Envision
Energy, believes in a tech-led approach.
‘We want to demonstrate the future of
e-mobility,’ he says. ‘The future EV will
be a personal, mobile, intelligent green
power station.’ Envision’s USP is an
interconnected ‘smart grid’ of devices,
storage and power generation that the
entrepreneur likens to a ‘Facebook of
energy’. There’s also Redspace’sThe driving force behind China’s automotive evolutionasymmetrical city car, designed by
Chris Bangle, the former design chief
of BMW. ‘I think most thinking designers
have a great ambivalence towards
the concept of brands,’ says Bangle.
‘Redspace is refreshing because it has
so little inertia from the past and so
much to offer.’ The car’s role as a social
signifier remains undiminished, but
these new brands match desirability with
smart design and data-mining as China
seeks to escape pollution with the next
stage of automotive evolution.CLOCKWISE FROM TOP,
ENVISION’S SIBYLLA,
LYNK & CO’S 02, BYTON’S
ELECTRIC SUV CONCEPT,
REDSPACE’S REDS, NIO’S
ES8 AND THE POLESTAR 1ILLUSTRATOR: JULIEN PACAUD WRITER: JONATHAN BELL ∑ 039
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