Small is the new big for Orange County auto designers.
With $4 gas prices, designers on the frontline of production say there is a renewed focus on small, fuel-efficient cars.
“It’s definitely a high priority, especially with the market now,” said Tom Kearns, chief designer for Irvine’s Kia Motors America Inc.
The challenge for auto designers is adding pizzazz to small cars, which in recent years took a backseat to sport utility vehicles, minivans and trucks.
“It doesn’t have to be a cheap appliance to get you from point A to point B,” Kearns said.
OC has design operations for several auto-makers, including Toyota Motor Corp.’s Calty Design Research Inc. in Newport Beach and Mitsubishi Motors North America Inc.’s design center in Cypress.
“There’s a renaissance happening with design,” said Dave O’Connell, chief U.S. designer for Mitsubishi.
The Mitsubishi Lancer, an economy sedan, lacked style when it first came out, O’Connell said.
“Now there’s a wow factor,” he said.
It costs the same to design a good looking car as it does a boxy car, said O’Connell.
“Small cars used to be like penalty cars,” he said.
They were perceived as not being as safe as large autos. But automakers have made great strides in improving safety through design, O’Connell said.
“Safety is exponentially better than it was even five years ago,” he said.
SUVs and other bigger autos aren’t off the table at local design shops. But SUVs are getting smaller, or what the industry calls “crossover.”
There also is a push to use alternative fuel engines in larger vehicles, O’Connell said.
Whether the trend toward smaller and alternative fuel vehicles will last is up for debate among designers and industry watchers.
Auto design has gone in waves before, with a focus on small cars in the 1970s and 1980s, after the last big surge in oil prices.
During the go-go late 1990s, trucks and SUVs ruled as buyers gave little thought to gas prices.
If gas prices stay the same or go down, demand for small cars could wane as happened in the past, said Jack Nerad, executive market analyst for Irvine-based Kelley Blue Book Co.
“People are overreacting to the market,” he said.
Others insist the auto industry is at a turning point with America set to become more like Europe, where high gas prices help drive demand for small cars.
Legendary oilman T. Boone Pickens, director and major owner of Seal Beach-based Clean Energy Fuels Corp., supports the theory of peak oil, which asserts that world oil production is entering an irreversible decline.
At Kia, designers try to look 10 years out and imagine how alternative fuel engines could affect design.
“I don’t think we have a choice but to look at different engines,” Kearns said.
New engines allow designers to get more creative, said O’Connell of Mitsubishi, part of Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors Corp.
The automaker’s MiEV, a plug-in micro car, has electric motors in the wheels. The MiEV goes 100 miles on a single charge and is set to sell in Japan, where, like Europe, the streets are smaller and gas prices are high. What’s considered a subcompact here might be a midsize car in Japan, O’Connell said.
A U.S. version of the MiEV is expected in the next few years. It’s being tested here by operators of fleet cars.
“If the price of gas increases it may come sooner,” O’Connell said.
Kia, part of South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co., already makes a number of small cars. Even its new Soul SUV is small compared to other SUVs. The Soul is about the same length as the subcompact Kia Rio.
It takes about four to five years to get a car from design to dealer lots, though automakers are trying to shorten that time.
To dream up new concepts, Kia invested $130 million in its 21-acre design center and U.S. headquarters in Irvine. The 100,700-square-foot design center has a virtual reality room,sort of a home theater with gigantic screens that can project life-size images of vehicles, Kearns said.
“The company is a big supporter of design,” he said.
For inspiration, Kia’s design team goes on field trips to fashion shows or interior design shows.
On Saturdays the crew joins the car buffs and collectors at the informal car gathering at Ford Motor Co.’s Irvine operations.
Kia tries to think youthful for its small car design, though not as much as Toyota’s Scion, according to Kearns.
“You can sell a young person’s car to an old person but not the other way around,” he said.
