Monday, August 18, 2008

The Gina Light from BMW: "Haute Couture Carmaking for the Future" (Financial Times)


"Concept cars are built to surprise, signal new directions and push accepted limits – a bit like what haute couture dresses do in the fashion world.

But even by those standards, BMW startled motoring circles in June when it published a study for a car whose outer skin is made of cloth.

Built around a flexible metal structure, the Gina Light is covered with a sheet of durable fabric that stretches to fit when the doors open or close. Two eyelid-like slits appear in the cloth when its headlights are turned on. The model provided some clues about preoccupations and plans at the world’s top-selling luxury carmaker.

A century after Henry Ford launched the Model T, revolutionising how cars were made and sold, BMW and other manufacturers are preparing themselves for a future of intensifying cost and regulatory pressures..."

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