Auto Design

A commentary.

In the mid-sixties, the Milanese Inter foot-club was dominating the scene in Europe, under the leadership of coach Helenio Herrera and the ownership of Angelo Moratti. Herrera had a lot of talent and a simple, pragmatic strategy: buy all the best players, even if he could not use all of them.

By doing so, he was making sure they would not play against his team. Mr. Moratti was so committed and rich enough to afford the best players for his Inter.

Today, the VW Group is rich enough (and so busy playing in many “championships” around the world, be it Brazil, China, the United States besides Europe and more sub-continents to come) that they can take full advantage of the huge design and engineering potential of Italdesign-Giugiaro.

By taking control of the High Performance design and engineering organisation, they clearly cut-off a source of successful (hence dangerous) contributions for their competitors.

They obviously realise that Italdesign-Giugiaro has greatly helped the re-vitalisation of VW when Giugiaro designed (at the request of Kurt Lotz , who scouted him at the 1969 Turin Motor Show) the Golf which literally turned around VW at their most critical time ever, after rushing the design of the first Passat and Scirocco.

But Italdesign-Giugiaro have been long time, and strategic, partners of some of the most successful brands around the world such as Toyota, Hyundai, and now the Chinese (FAW, Brilliance, Cherry and more) and Malaysian Proton. Just to name a few.

The story with Fiat is completely different. A story that might be worth re-visiting one of these days.

Now one may question who is going to design the revolutionary Fiat Uno and Panda, or the ipersuccessful Punto, of the future. Just to mention a few. Yet one should not forget the early Croma and Lancia Thema, very successful to Fiat’s standards.

With Lamborghini and Bentley, the VW board has experienced how important it is to maintain the original character and flair of each brand and with Italian born and Turin trained Walter De’ Silva in charge of Italdesign-Giugiaro, VW has the principles, the talent and the expertise to ensure Italdesign-Giugiaro will continue to be the “Italian & Independent” design and engineering think thank dedicated to the 13 brands of the Group (add the MAN and SAAB truck to the 11 passenger car and commercial vehicle brands).

My opinion is that the short and medium term Italdesign-Giugiaro will flourish and grow with success and will deliver outstanding ideas to all of us. (Also see next part: Watch out for those Two”).

On the other side, by accepting VW as their majority partners, Giorgetto and Fabrizio Giugiaro have produced another excellent piece of rational and excellent design: they have ensured their company, and their 800 plus work-force, a safe future at a time when no business is stable as it used to be. A future that is no longer dependent on the health and commitment of its remaining founding partner (although Giorgetto is enjoying excellent health and is more committed than ever, as the Proton E-Mas proves) and of his son Fabrizio.

They both are not going to quit the business any time soon to enjoy the money and their dividends. Fabrizio is indeed moving into the much wider world of the VW Group.

At 45 he has some 30 years of experience in the business, is familiar with the entire design and industry community world-wide and, with his father, is the professional who has seen and shared the development of most projects and different brands, world-wide, that I can think of.

As for Giorgetto Giugiaro, I see him working with a very small team to projects of his own. He can design a new car every-week but his dream has always been to design and develop a couple of new and innovative cars per year.

This is why I expect him (and Ferdinand Piëch) to deliver some outstanding design and technology innovations in the next months and years to come.

Last but not least, both the new role of VW at Italdesign and the need for their competitors to buy more Italian design and engineering expertise and support, will be very beneficial to the design community in and around Turin.