Jalopnik: Vision

2008 Peugeot Design Contest Picks Top Ten Future Cars We'll Never See

Ben Wojdyla — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:40:00 EDT

The initial round of voting in the fifth annual Peugeot Design Contest has just concluded, with the field of entries from design students on the subject of "Imagine the Peugeot in the worldwide megalopolis of tomorrow” winnowed down from over 2,500 entries from 95 countries to ten best concepts. It's now up to you to pick the winner. The ten which remain are the purported best of the best of the best of the submitted — with entries ranging from pod-shaped supercommuters to jet fighter-styled speed demons. Although we've got Jalopnik's take on the final ten below, we want you to tell us what you think in the comments.

GALapagos

Designer: Igor Yastrebov
Home: Romania
Age: 21
Our take: Like its namesake, the GALapogos is a concept excellent at adapting to a situation, with a transformable wheelbase and track and adjustable passenger compartment.

Peugeot 888

Designer: Oskar Johansen
Home: Norway
Age: 34
Our take: The 888 is another transforming car which bends at the middle for easy, short wheelbase use in city traffic and a longer, lower layout for high speed commuting. Of course the car has electric motors in the hubs, that's the only way designers can be cool these days.

Rugir

Designer: Onur Güvenc
Home: Germany
Age: 26
Our take: The Rugir maintains traditional wheels up front but a novel but hidden spherical rear wheel allowing very tight maneuvers when needed.

P.R.O.

Designer: Ke Guo
Home: China
Age: 21
Our take: P-Peugeot, R-Revolution, O-Formula racing car. This high performance concept takes inspiration from F1 design as well as full visibility fighter jet cockpits to create something we want to have in our driveway right now.

OXO

Designer: Lou Ke
Home: China
Age: 22
Our take: Here's a crazy one, the OXO is a name taken from the car's shape, that of a pod on one side, a shape-changing "X" in the middle, and another pod on the other side. The aim is to manage parking and driving space while maintaining passenger and cargo space.

Ego

Designer: Emre Yazici
Home: Turkey
Age: 45
Our take: The Ego presents a somewhat terrifying concept in transit — a single passenger, all-electric, two wheeled commuter. If you ask us, they could market it as the car you'll die in and the coffin you'll be buried in — efficiency!

RD

Designer: Carlos Arturo Torres Tovar
Home: Colombia
Age: 25
Our take: More or less a three wheeler with a panoramic glass roof, the RD strikes us as something that would actually be pretty fun to drive, if nothing but for the novelty of the thing.

Vision

Designer: Shinji Numuki
Home: Japan
Age: 33
Our take: Not a lot of detail on this one, but it certainly delivers the promise of its name with huge sections of glass from roof to floor. We're going out on a limb and guess something like this is pretty unlikely to pass crash testing.

MoVille

Designer: Woo-Ram Lee
Home: France
Age: 22
Our take: We've already seen the MoVille, and all we can say is it could only have been designed by a French student, the rotating single seat tear-drop passenger compartment, electric motors coupled to spherical electromagnetically actuated wheels, and sliding window door. Its all so positively French, we're surprised it doesn't have a self leveling pneumatic suspension.

Seed by Peugeot

Designer: Yann Terrer
Home: France
Age: 28
Our take: Now this one is quite clever. The Seed is a car which folds upon itself and "parks" on a flower-shaped storage ferris wheel. Not only that, it does so in a fairly aesthetically pleasing futurism style.

If you'd like to vote on this years entrants or take a closer look at the concepts yourself, head over to Peugeot for a healthy dollop of futurism run amok.

Detroit Auto Show: 2009 Mercedes GLK Vision Freeside Unveiling Extravaganza

Travis Hudson — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 00:01:00 EST

We've already showed you Mercedes' new mouthful, the 2009 GLK Vison Freestyle 320 CTDi Bluetech Concept. But tonight, Mercedes officially unveiled it at big band extravaganza at MOCAD.

Due to the extravagance of the event, we couldn't help but feel that we were experiencing something akin to the last days of the Roman Empire. While a 1920's influenced German brass band played Britney Spears covers, Kim Catrall made a cameo appearance, we drank moderately-priced champagne and Dr. Z delivered a partially incomprehensible accounting of Mercedes' accounts.

We don't really understand where the GLK fits into all of this and weren't totally impressed. It looks like a busy, fussy X3 with really cool, optional, roof rack mounted LED lights — basically the 2009 version of KC smiley faces.

The one saving grace was the wheels. Which actually delivered on the classy, art deco feel Mercedes were trying to go for with the whole thing.

Detroit Auto Show: Mercedes Vision GLK Freeside High-Res Photos

Matt Hardigree — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 12:15:00 EST

When the first official pictures of the Mercedes Vision GLK Freeside emerged there was some discussion as to whether the car was intended for lesbians or wealthier Toyota RAV4 owners. We hope these new high res will clear up any confusion. Things you immediately notice about the higher resolution photos is the LED lamps build into the forward roof rack.

You'll also notice how, at least in one version of the GLK, the two-tone color scheme is pronounced with the darker (perhaps plastic) bumpers. You may also recognize that MB test drivers always have pained looks on their faces. [Mercedes Benz via World Car Fans]

Detroit Auto Show: Mercedes Vision GLK Freeside Photos And Details Emerge

Matt Hardigree — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 21:15:00 EST

Every time we mention the new Mercedes GLK the name gets a little longer. The new Mercedes Benz Vision GLK Freeside, which will debut at Detroit, is going to be built on the C-Class platform and powered by either a 2.2 liter four-cylinder turbodiesel that's good for 175 horsepower or a gas V6 (though American models should get both a diesel and gas option). The concept version gets a seven-speed automatic transmission with paddle shifter. The ever observant folks at Edmunds Inside Line have the inside story, posting the photos because Autoweek apparently already broke the story.

Additionally, the new GLK will get the 4Matic AWD system, adaptive headlights, ESP, a million airbags, three-zone climate control and the COMAND infotainment center. The wheels are 20-inches with five gigantic spokes, as seen. More details on this nearly-production concept later today. [Edmunds Inside Line]

Hit the Road, JAC: The Vision Concept in Beijing

Mike Spinelli — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 12:37:36 EST

Looks like JAC motors has terminated the backward Lexus logo that once adorned its Vision concept. And that's fine, because this isn't some bizarro Toyota (though to be a fly on the wall in the development meetings). The company unveiled its latest Sino-chic take on the typical sports sedan at the Beijing show this week. Copyright infringement aside, if concepts like this are an indication, Chinese makes won't keep churning out cars uglier than the haircuts on "Cold Case" for much longer. – Mike Spinelli

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