"First design a car like the Fiat Panda!" - a conversation with the car designer of the century

He has designed the VW Golf, the Fiat Panda and the BMW M1 - some 60 million vehicles have been put on the road by Giorgetto Giugiaro as a designer. Colleagues named him "Car Designer of the Century" for his work. An interview.

John DeLorean and his wife in front of their car they had designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro. Tony Korody / Getty Images

Mr. Giugiaro, all you have to do is leave the house and you'll encounter many of the vehicles you designed. How does that feel?

Well, I have designed more than 500 cars, implemented about 300 of them. It usually takes three years from design to production. When the car is finally on the road, I tend to analyze it critically rather than enjoying it. You always think: I could have done something better.

You originally wanted to be a painter. How did you get into vehicle design?

When I was painting in school, my teacher said, "You have talent, go to the academy. But you may never earn enough from your art, there are too many good artists." I then went to Fiat at 17 to have a steady income, and there I learned that you can express yourself in a different way: not only two-dimensional, but also three-dimensional.

Giorgetto Giugiaro in the eighties.

Adriano Alecchi/Mondadori portfolio

The Porsche Tapiro - a concept car designed by Giugiaro in 1970.

John Lamm/The Enthusiast Network/Getty Images

You just celebrated your 80th birthday and can look back on a wide-ranging life's work: in addition to the Fiat Panda, your best-known designs include the VW Golf, the BMW M1, the Maserati Ghibli and the DeLorean DMC-12. Which is more difficult to design, a small car or a luxury car?

The sports car is always easier. The shape is created there in proportion to the product, when you have 12 cylinders and you need a special length for the aerodynamics. If I make a Ferrari, it becomes a luxury product already qua its content. But if you design a car like the Fiat Panda, you get a long list from the designers and have far fewer options. There are aerodynamics, length, weight, trunk size, safety standards. Regulations as far as pedestrian protection is concerned. More and more conditions have to be met. Everything must be right, only then there is the approval.

That sounds indignant.

No, no. After all, there are good reasons for society to keep passing new laws. Where would we end up if everyone could do what they want? In an increasingly mobile world, of course, the product is becoming more and more complex. But this challenge stimulates and motivates the designer in every way. Every obstacle motivates us to find new solutions.

John DeLorean and his wife Cristina Ferrare in front of their car, which they had designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro.

Tony Korody / Getty Images

What role does design play in the automotive industry?

The role of design is to give the vehicle an economic value, but also a certain character. A person's decision to buy a car is often instinctive, so the product must have the same appeal - after all, it's supposed to sell. Ideally, a car has something that models from other manufacturers don't have. It must highlight an aspect that is attractive and meaningful: this car and no other. If you don't create attraction, you haven't done your job.

"If a car is successful, it will be copied."

Why is it that relatively many cars today look relatively the same?

It's quite simple: If a car is successful, it is copied. In this way, manufacturers reduce the sales risk. If you launch something original on the market, you don't know in advance whether it will be a success or not. If he then sees a successful product at the competitor's, he follows the same line, with minimal changes.

The "GFG Style Sibylla" by Giorgetto Giugiaro.

At the vehicle show "Grand Basel" you recently presented the electric sedan "GFG Style Sibylla", which looks radically different. An enthusiast project, or are you working towards market maturity?

I gave the car to myself as a present for my 80th birthday. It was financed by a large Chinese energy company - they got one and I got one. I wanted to set new standards in function and design. The car has a range of 450 kilometers, travels faster than 200 km/h, is more than five meters long, has slim LED headlights and a large glass dome as a roof that turns dark in sunlight. When you get in, the entire dome pushes forward. There's room for four people, and the seats are from Poltrona Frau. Through a connector, when the car is stationary, you can also power other electronic devices or an entire house.

"After all, the structural problem remains the human being."

Could changing framework conditions - autonomous driving, electric drive - generally lead to greater variability in car design in the future?

No, the structural problem remains the human being. They have to get into the car, sit down, and want to look out. Of course, it's possible that some autonomous vehicles will no longer have windows, because you can still get to your destination. But the automobile itself will remain a showpiece. This will become increasingly important in the future, we live in a hedonistic world, mobility is moving into the background.

Who knows if we will even see private cars in cities in a few decades?

Sooner or later, society in big cities will have to choose a path: do we declutter the city or not? After all, what good are all the fantastic cars on the market if they are stuck in traffic jams all day? Today, there is hardly any room for prestigious cars on the streets of metropolises, yet demand is here to stay. But the future of road traffic will be decided in the cities. What the vehicles of the future will look like will ultimately be decided by society at large.

The "Grand Basel" car show, co-curated by Giorgetto Giugiaro, will be held in Miami Beach on February 23-24, 2019, and in Hong Kong in May 2019.

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