Interview with BeyonCa China Chief Designer: Balancing Sport and Luxury

Typically, a car cannot satisfy both sport and luxury needs at the same time. From the perspective of traditional car companies' product layout, sport and luxury are usually two completely different product lines. However, some car companies want to challenge this.

At the end of October, a new luxury electric car brand, BeyonCa, officially revealed its first model, the Gran Turismo Opus 1 (GT Opus 1). As a GT model, BeyonCa wants to balance sport and luxury in its design. How can it master the "trick" of balancing both? PingWestand BeyonCa China Chief Designer Lucas Columbus discussed the design philosophy behind it.

Sport and luxury in electric cars

For an electric car, good aerodynamic design is the key to achieving high performance and long endurance. The traditional luxury sedan's design cannot meet the higher aerodynamic requirements of electric cars. Therefore, a sleek GT model is a better choice, which ensures both space and performance.

GT Opus 1 combines speed and luxury in its design, and BeyonCa hopes to find the perfect balance between speed and leisure. From the appearance and size of the vehicle, the car has a strong sense of sportiness, and the large interior means there’s no need to worry too much about space for rear passengers.

However, a large interior and a sporty body have always been contradictory. In order to balance both, BeyonCa adjusted the Y0 line of GT Opus 1's entire vehicle in its design, making the car's appearance more sporty. At the same time, considering the experience sitting in the rear, the overall vehicle lines were adjusted again, making the rear seat more spacious. In addition, adjustments were made to the H-point, so that passengers sitting in the car would not feel the pressure from the overall vehicle appearance.

In addition, although this car has already made its debut, it has undergone several modifications by the design team in terms of body design. For example, the latest version has been raised a few centimeters, ensuring comfort and safety without losing the sporty feel.

In terms of details, there are many three-dimensional designs in the tail and tail light parts, and the dynamic logo uses the "Light of Life," all of which aim to demonstrate the vehicle's energy and vitality. Vitality, more intuitively, is an experience of live and breathe. The current mainstream luxury cars attach great importance to the design with such experience to highlight the vehicle's interactive properties.

Furthermore, according to BeyonCa, this car will have more innovative designs in the future. In the future, a line will be added to the engine hood, and "soft nose" technology will be introduced. It is understood that "soft nose" refers to the front of the car being soft. The front face is not necessarily all metal, but can also be a soft surface made up of some lines.

In terms of interior design, in order to make the interior space not only large but also visually large, BeyonCa has done some work on the balance point of the DLO area. DLO, also known as Daylight Opening, refers to the area between the first column (A-pillar) and the last column on the side of the car, which is the area of the glass. Generally, the DLO area of a sports car is relatively small, but considering both sportiness and internal spaciousness, the size of the DLO area needs to find a balance point, allowing the vehicle to have a sporty posture while still appearing spacious from the outside or inside.

At the same time, the interior design language, like the exterior, adopts a lot of curved designs, such as the triple screen and the clock on the car. Columbus explained the intention of this design: "Curves can help us integrate many elements together. Sometimes you may want to emphasize the sportiness of the vehicle, but if you do that, other aspects may be a bit too exaggerated. But we use curved elements to hope to integrate all the interior elements well together, so that you can feel the sportiness of the whole car, while also maintaining the low-key of the whole car, without being too flashy."

In luxury brand design, details such as color, material, and texture are very important. According to Columbus, BeyonCa also has a CMF team responsible for color, material, and surface treatment work. The CMF team is the key to controlling details. Lucas said that this team is dedicated to finding suitable processing techniques and also finding new directions and methods for using materials. The materials designed include wood, leather, and metal. Controlling the details is also to ensure balance between the luxury qualities and materials’ authenticity.

In terms of interior design, BeyonCa’s luxury positioning means genuine materials are used instead of simulated materials. Every small detail matters when you are trying to convey a sense of luxury. For example, in terms of soft materials, the CMF team has made many samples to judge how to better improve comfort based on the tactile feel of the material. When designing the stitching, the team also considered many sizes so that when people lean on it, there is no discomfort, while still being able to feel the authenticity of the materials through touch, smell, and other senses. Even in the issue of using single or double stitching in the logo design, this team has done many trials to achieve the best effect.

In addition, in order to meet the differentiated needs of more high-end users, BeyonCa allows users to choose custom interiors with unique and exclusive feelings as much as possible. By combining different materials and designs, multiple options can be created, and leather, stitching, and other elements can all be customized.

In terms of exterior design, the CMF team is researching using two or three layers of paint to showcase the body color. The more layers of paint used, the higher the quality, but this will be a customization option, and customers can choose according to their own needs.

At the same time, BeyonCa also expresses its design philosophy in terms of materials. Luxury design is not just about stacking materials, but also considering the actual user experience (touch, visual), as well as whether it can convey the brand's value.

Designers from traditional car companies want to create something new

According to Columbus, many members of BeyonCa's design team have worked for traditional high-end car companies such as Lamborghini, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Audi, and Bentley, and have rich design experience. However, BeyonCa's goal is not just to bring these people together to create a traditionally defined luxury car. They hope to have their own brand values to showcase their personalities.

BeyonCa has a professional design team in Munich, Germany. As the chief designer in China, Columbus hopes to incorporate more Chinese elements into product design. He stated that the team is currently working hard to design products with rich Chinese charm. They need to have Chinese cultural characteristics while complementing Munich's design culture, and finding the perfect balance between the two.

From BeyonCa's design story, it can be seen that their goal is to create a car that combines sport and luxury, Chinese and Western design. It can be said that such a product is still a blank space in the current market. We look forward to seeing the true face of BeyonCa's first mass-produced car soon.

Reporter Jimmy Ma from PingWest