The Goodwood Festival of Speed today showcased a car – Airo designed to strip the air of pollution as it drives along. The Goodwood Festival of Speed is the world’s greatest celebration of motorsport and car culture. It is motorsport’s ultimate summer garden party, held in the beautiful parkland surrounding Goodwood House. Nowhere else will you get so close to the cars and bikes as they blast up the Hillclimb track.
The car which was first unveiled at the Shanghai car show in April is expected to go into production in China in 2023. Airo has a sleek large glass roof and has the steering wheel hidden somewhere in the dashboard. The interior is designed to look like a room than a car. A room with adjustable chairs that can be turned into beds, and a central table intended for meetings or meals. The exterior is textured with a series of ridges that reflect the flow of air over it.
The radical design is intended to address 2 things majorly. The issues of pollution and also to help solve the concept of space crisis. “COVID has raised the space crisis. Many of us are living in flats and houses and need more space, an office or a study,” says Thomas Heatherwick, Vehicle Designer. With one billion cars in the world which are used for roughly only 10% of the time, there is scope for them to become “valuable real-estate”. He explains how he was inspired by the idea of first-class airline seats, which are used “to sleep, eat, entertain and work”. He strongly believes the vehicle can becomes a communal space for the time when it is not driven. Heatherwick describes this vehicle as “not crazy luxury” and will be priced at about £40,000+
Heatherwick who is better known for architectural projects such as Google’s headquarters in California and London. He expressed his shock when approached by IM Motors in China for the vehicle design “we said that we were not car designers and they said ‘that is why we want you’.” He reveals that while he had never designed a car before, he was intrigued by the brief. The car looks radically different but critics are not convinced it can really help the environment address issues with pollution.
Peter Wells, professor of business and sustainability at the Cardiff Business School’s centre for automotive industry research in an interview said “I cannot see how this car can make any significant contribution to resolving the many problems associated with car ownership and use”. He continued by saying “The contribution of this car to cleaning the air in our polluted urban centres would be so small as to be impossible to measure”. The car industry has a long history of creating excitement around concept cars but the transition to production – if it happens at all – usually means the exciting features are replaced by something more mundane, able to be manufactured, practical in use and cost-effective.”
“This isn’t a fantasy, the whole idea was for it not to be a concept car, which is why we are working with a manufacturer, and we focused everything on ideas that can happen.” says Heatherwick “Car manufacturers are falling over themselves to make electric cars, but a new electric car shouldn’t just be another one with a different look,”
Olagoke Ajibola is a creative writer and content producer with an eye for details and excellence. He has a demonstrated history of telling stories for TV, Film and Online. Aside from being fascinated by the power of imagination, his other interest are travel, sport, reading and meeting people.
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