Latest news with #MichaelSimcoe
The Drive
2 days ago
- Automotive
- The Drive
Self-Driving Will 'Drastically' Change How Cars Look, GM's New Design Boss Says
The latest car news, reviews, and features. It's been said many times before that the automotive industry has reached an inflection point, but it's not just electrification that has brought it about. Technologies don't come about in a vacuum; they complement each other. If EVs are what the market is currently reckoning with, then just up ahead is the autonomy of our roadways. Bryan Nesbitt, General Motors' newly installed chief of global design, says that the latter will redefine car design. 'One of the biggest transitions in mobility is happening in this next window with autonomous driving,' Nesbitt said in a recent interview published by GM. The designer, who has replaced Michael Simcoe at the helm, referenced one particular odd way in which consumers attempted to grapple with a similar degree of change many generations ago. 'They once sold a model of a horse's head that you could put on the front of your car, to enable the emotional transition from the horse to the automobile,' Nesbitt added. 'That illustrates how this was a very dramatic transition for people. 'This next window is very significant, because this transition is going to influence our behaviors,' he continued. 'That's what good technology does. The kind of discussions that we're having now have necessarily become much more about the total experience. No matter how advanced technology may be, for us it's about how artfully it can it be integrated into your life.' The Buick Electra Orbit concept, conceived by the GM China Advanced Design Center in Shanghai. GM Design My entire life, I've been seeing concept cars imagined for a world in which the act of driving was optional. They'd be long, pea pod-shaped things with movable seating often arranged in a circle, along with tables, mini-fridges to chill your drinks, and maybe even a plant or two. They've never seemed feasible, yet they've become an auto show staple for decades. That vision of transportation is idealized at best, fanciful at worst. Even in a future where such machines are possible, who wants their everyday work commute to be a social gathering? People value solitude, too. Wrestling away control presents another stumbling block, perhaps more for us enthusiasts than others. Remove control, and you're taking away investment. And how emotional can you be toward a vehicle you're not invested in? For a designer—someone who works to imbue emotion in machines that are effectively appliances for a vast majority of people—that seems like a tall task. When Nesbitt talks about human behaviors and 'the total experience,' I think he's getting at how our relationships with cars stand to change in a pretty dramatic way in, say, the next 20 years. Perhaps there's a way that relationship can still be strong even as we relinquish control. But who knows what that looks like from where we're standing now? EVs, for example, have enabled the industry to break free of the packaging constraints that have defined a century of automotive design, but the cars that embody that potential are often derided as jellybeans. The public's preferences won't be shifted through messaging alone, even conveyed through design. The 'artful integration' of technology, as GM's new design boss puts it, is everything. Because if it doesn't improve lives or provide some kind of obvious value, it's going to fall flat. Got a tip? Let us know at tips@
Car and Driver
02-07-2025
- Automotive
- Car and Driver
Michael Simcoe, General Motors Global Design Chief, Retires
Michael Simcoe today retired from his position as design director for General Motors. In the company's nearly 120-year history, he is only the seventh person to hold this job. As an Australian native, he is also the first to originate outside GM's Detroit headquarters. He credits his 42-year tenure with the automaker to this fact. "If I'd been in North America all my life, I probably wouldn't have gotten this job," Simcoe told Car and Driver, seated in his stunning landmarked office, overlooking the corporate campus designed by pioneering Modernist architect Eero Saarinen in the 1950s. "I wasn't totally remote, but I was remote enough to grow differently. I was able to basically ignore North America," he smiles. "And I think that feeling was mutual." His first big break arrived when he surreptitiously penned a rear-wheel-drive 1998 coupe concept for Australia's resurgent home market. This became the successful 2001 Holden Monaro, garnering the attention of famed GM executive Bob Lutz. courtesy: General Motors Lutz brought that two-door to the U.S. as a small-block V-8–powered 2004 Pontiac GTO. Unfortunately, affixing this venerable nameplate was its undoing. "That vehicle would have been a really, really good Chevrolet," Simcoe notes, "The moment they splashed GTO on it was the kiss of death." Another V-8/rear-wheel-drive design, Simcoe's 2006 Holden Commodore (VE), became Lutz's BMW M5-fighting 2008 Pontiac G8 GT. Built on Australia's all-new Zeta platform, it fell victim to the global economic implosion and the death of the We Build Excitement brand. "But if you can find one of those now," Simcoe says, "it's a performance bargain." Aaron Kiley Simcoe had moved to Detroit by then, to become executive director of North American exterior design, and worked on another key Zeta car: the retro-styled fifth-generation 2010 Chevy Camaro. This vehicle marked a sea change in technological design collaboration for the company. Tom Drew "When I was in high school, we had slide rules—god that dates me," he chuckles. "For the Camaro, the theming work was done here. The engineering work and the design execution were done in Australia. So that was a real test of doing work 24 hours a day in real time, sharing huge files." Contemporary GM designers now regularly utilize augmented reality, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence to collaborate on global projects with colleagues in Detroit, Pasadena, Shanghai, and Birmingham, England. But while Simcoe has overseen a massive expansion and modernization of GM's home studios, as he walks us through the addition's cavernous new open-plan workrooms, the great majority of floor space is occupied by modelers working in that most analog of materials: clay. "The beauty in the business is still working with clay," Simcoe says. 'So I built this palace to full-size models." He believes that eventually, design may go completely virtual, but doesn't see that happening for a generation or two. "It will take that long before designers operating in a virtual world have the sensibility and judgment to understand truly what they're creating proportionately," he says. Walking through the studios invokes the literal elephants in the room: the rise of the SUV. Simcoe is characteristically blunt about the sport utility's voracious takeover. "Do I love SUVs? Not really. As a designer, an SUV is a marketing accommodation," he says. "It's a hard proportion to make work well." However, he takes heart in recent category shifts. "The notion around what makes an SUV—what shape, what form, what proportion—is thankfully changing," he says. He cites two factors. "First, I think people want more style," beyond the typical box, he says. "Our little Buick Envista and Chevy Trax, they're really quite a different take. They're not SUVs, but they have all the SUV qualities—higher ride, great interior efficiency—they're just not upright vehicles. And they hit well above their pay grade content-wise, and in their impression on the road." (We agree, having named both an Editors' Choice, and the Trax a 10Best Truck.) He also alludes to a concept vehicle that will be unveiled this summer at Pebble Beach (indicating it's probably a Cadillac), that pushes shifting notions of SUV-ification in an even more radical direction. The other element that Simcoe sees challenging the prominence of the blandly boxy SUV is the industry's adoption of electrification. "In EV architecture, the level of requisite efficiency makes traditional SUVs a bit more difficult," he says, noting that the height and weight of large battery packs, combined with rectilinear vehicles' aerodynamics, diminishes range. He believes EV design will be liberated significantly by advances in battery technology. "If batteries are thinner or can be distributed elsewhere besides the floor, or if you can make a brick go 300-plus miles versus a teardrop, that'll affect the design of vehicles." In the near future, Simcoe predicts that GM's core electrification focus will be on affordability. He enjoyed ushering the innovative and delightful 2017 Chevrolet Bolt into existence, meeting range and affordability targets. Unfortunately, the automaker was, somewhat typically, ahead of consumer adoption. courtesy: General Motors Simcoe foresees EV democratization impacting design, as manufacturers seek ways to significantly reduce development, production, and material costs. "As we move toward more affordable EVs, we're going to have to make choices about how we spend money differently," he says. "This is going to affect design, particularly interiors." This parsimoniousness controverts one of Simcoe's career favorite projects, the Cadillac Celestiq—a hedonistic, mid-six-figure, electric flagship laden with bespoke materials. "Celestiq is a dream job," he says. "It's what the brand needed. If we're telling the world that we're serious about Cadillac as a premium brand, and creating that emotional pull internally and externally, then we need a vehicle like that that demonstrates what the brand's capable of. And what design is capable of." Winging from the Celestiq's audacious allure, we ask Simcoe what the other GM brands would require to reinforce their proprietary equities. "Huge numbers of icon products," he says, smiling. "But that's not my reality. Every designer would love to be doing more performance-oriented, character-driven premium vehicles, layering on detail and artistic execution. But we're in a business where we exist because we make money, and any designer who gets churlish about that is missing the point." courtesy: General Motors After his retirement, Simcoe will return to Australia. This move may require him to reconsider his vast vehicular stable, which currently includes a 1956 Lancia Aurelia B20GT, a 1961 Lotus Mk. II Elite Super 95, a 1961 Aston Martin Series III DB4 Vantage, and a 1970 Lancia Fulvia HF 1.6 Group 4, as well as a passel of vintage motorcycles, including a 1928 Douglas DT/SW5, a 1952 Vincent Black Shadow, a 1971 Norton Commando Long Range, and a pair of 1970s Ducatis. We note that this hoard lacks any GM vehicles and ask if there's a current or past product from his lifelong employer that he'd like to acquire. "If I could afford it, a 1930s Cadillac V16 Aerodynamic Coupe," he says, reminding us of the swoopy purple example recently procured for GM's Heritage Collection. But he has another idea as well. "When I came here, I had this desire to buy a 1963 Corvette split window coupe—manual, injected. But as I waited, they became priced out of their value as a car." He smirks. "Perhaps a going-away present, crowd-sourced?" Brett Berk Contributing Editor Brett Berk (he/him) is a former preschool teacher and early childhood center director who spent a decade as a youth and family researcher and now covers the topics of kids and the auto industry for publications including CNN, the New York Times, Popular Mechanics and more. He has published a parenting book, The Gay Uncle's Guide to Parenting, and since 2008 has driven and reviewed thousands of cars for Car and Driver and Road & Track, where he is contributing editor. He has also written for Architectural Digest, Billboard, ELLE Decor, Esquire, GQ, Travel + Leisure and Vanity Fair. Read full bio
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
The Cadillac Celestiq in Photos
More from Robb Report First Drive: The $340,000 Cadillac Celestiq Is a Quiet Tour de Force With a Lot Riding on It Lexus's New IS 500 Ultimate Edition Might Be the Last of Its Kind The New Hummer EV Is the Fastest One Yet Best of Robb Report The 2024 Chevy C8 Corvette: Everything We Know About the Powerful Mid-Engine Beast The World's Best Superyacht Shipyards The ABCs of Chartering a Yacht Click here to read the full article. The all-electric Cadillac Celestiq, the marque's first hand-built production car since the 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham. The model is a four-door hatchback presenting a mid-century modern aesthetic. The Celestiq has a low-slung fastback profile, but its wheelbase exceeds that of a Cadillac Escalade. With 655 hp and 646 ft lbs of torque, the car is claimed to cover zero to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds on its way to a purported top speed of 130 mph. The interior features a 3-D-printed steering-wheel casing, hand-polished aluminum controls, and options that include leather floors and eucalyptus-fiber mats. A smart-glass roof features four quadrants for passengers to control opacity. The car embodies America's 'very optimistic, very strident view of the world' in the 1950s, '60s and '70s, according to Michael Simcoe, Cadillac's vice president of global design. The Celestiq is Cadillac's most technologically advanced production vehicle to date, which factors into the car's next-level pricing compared to others in the automaker's model line. Cadillac hopes the Celestiq will capitalize on the brand's legacy while catapulting the automaker into the future.
Fast Company
06-05-2025
- Automotive
- Fast Company
Why Cadillac can only make two of its new $340,000 EVs per day
'I've had more caviar since starting work on the Celestiq than I have during the entirety of my career at General Motors,' Erin Crossley, Cadillac's design director for color and trim, says before tucking into a ramekin at Gucci Osteria on Rodeo Drive. The uptick in caviar consumption is a leading indicator that Cadillac is going upscale. As design director for the Cadillac Celestiq, the American luxury brand's new, bespoke electric vehicle, Crossley sits with customers from all over the world and mines more than 350,000 permutations to deliver their perfect personalization. The low-slung EV with a 303 mile range starts at $340,000, pushing the American automaker into the realm of German, Italian and English luxury sports cars. But the price can tick much, much higher, with options from leather floors to eucalyptus fiber mats. 'We know that these clients have the means to do anything,' she says. 'It's like building a house: How detailed do you want to get?' Return to glory days Cadillac owned the luxury market for most of the twentieth century before ceding share to more exciting foreign rivals. GM hopes the arrival of the Celestiq heralds the brand's comeback and represents a return to its glory days. With its exaggerated proportions and brash demeanor, the Celestiq's design evokes the American style and optimism of Cadillac's midcentury heyday, according to Michael Simcoe, VP of Global Design. Simcoe, the handlebar-mustachioed designer who is set to retire this year, considers the Celestiq his swan song. 'For Cadillac to come back as a brand, it needed to do what Cadillac had always done, and that's create vehicles that exaggerated proportion and were very American in their style,' he tells Fast Company. 'It's a very optimistic, very strident view of the world, which was very big in the '50s through '60s and '70s in America.' In particular, the Celestiq drew inspiration from the 1957 Eldorado Brougham, a limited-edition sedan filled with luxury features; it was Cadillac's last hand-built car for nearly 70 years. With its low stance, large wheels and wheelbase longer than the full-size Cadillac Escalade SUV's, the Celestiq defies category, Simcoe says. 'At this level of luxury, everything is much bigger,' he says. 'Think about the other premium brands around, and they're traditionally executed as a three box sedan with a big trunk. But the Celestiq has a low, fastback profile that makes it stand out on the road.' Built by hand GM builds two Celestiqs a day on average, a far cry from the automaker's higher volume vehicles churned out on a production line. The car is built by hand in Warren, Michigan, at GM's Tech Center —a midcentury marvel itself commissioned by legendary designer and automotive executive Harley Earl and created by renowned architect Eero Saarinen. But the car also uses 3D-printed parts made from aluminum, stainless steel, and titanium. And like the Brougham, which introduced air suspension to the market, the Celestiq showcases a couple of other firsts: a smart glass roof featuring four quadrants for passengers to control opacity, as well as electronic shutters that obscure screen content while driving and can be controlled remotely via a QR code on the phone. 'It's very rare in an engineer's career where you get to go completely off script and make up a bespoke car,' says Tony Roma, executive chief engineer. 'The idea was, when you're making a statement to hang your whole brand on, you don't want somebody to walk up and find that piece of plastic and go, 'Oh, really, like, this is the best you could do,' right? For the interior, it became an obsession of the team that all of the little metal parts were either printed or made from finely detailed casting.' Who wants to buy a $340,000 Cadillac? Cadillac has declined to reveal the number of Celestiqs it plans to build, but it will need to find a viable customer base ready to spend somewhere in the mid-six figures for a Detroit-made car. The value proposition lies in the customization process, which usually takes place in a screening room at Cadillac House in New York or at a mobile popup like the Pendry West Hollywood, where Crossley and her team walked me through a process so extensive I forgot I wasn't a paying customer. 'When we design a vehicle with a customer, we won't share that same specification with anyone else, so you'll know that there's no one else who has a car with exactly the same specification as yours,' Simcoe says. 'Do you need to do that? No, but it's important to the people who are buying this car to go through the process and own it.' To herald its return to luxury, Cadillac's new playbook has the brand meeting customers where they are, feverishly expanding its presence in the luxury market over the past three years. In 2022, the carmaker signed a multi-year deal to become the automotive sponsor of the U.S. Open Tennis Championships. The following year, the brand returned to the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans race in France after a decades-long hiatus. On Saturday, it unveiled a logo for its inaugural Formula 1 team ahead of its plans to join the grid in 2026. Ultimately, GM hopes that some of this glamour trickles down into its more quotidian EV lineup, as it aspires to make Cadillac the best-selling luxury EV brand in the U.S. this year. Yo, VIP, let's kick it I took the Celestiq for a test drive in Los Angeles. As the morning rush faded away on the 101, Vanilla Ice came on the 38-speaker Dolby Atmos sound system, and I was transported into the rapper's ode to the open road. Luxury, I realized, is what you don't notice. No noise, no bumps, no traffic—although, to be fair, the Celestiq's extravagant proportions drew a share of the rubberneckers. Instead, I felt as though I was gliding through air as I ascended the Angeles Crest Highway—a career-first out of the thousands of cars I've tested. The wide open space between my vantage point and the car's front pillar—a mark of distinction in the premium segment—captures cloudless blue skies on a 76-degree day. A sedan that's longer than an Escalade and takes four months minimum to build isn't exactly practical, but at this moment, this drive is in a class of its own.
Zawya
08-04-2025
- Automotive
- Zawya
GM opens new UK advanced design studio, showcases Corvette-inspired concept car
Dubai, United Arab Emirates – General Motors has expanded its global design studio footprint with the official opening of a new advanced design studio in Royal Leamington Spa, about 20 miles from Birmingham. In connection with the opening, GM revealed an advanced design study Chevrolet Corvette concept car developed by the UK team as part of a global design project involving multiple studios that will see additional Corvette concepts revealed throughout 2025. The studio opening also provided a first glimpse of a GMC concept vehicle to be revealed later in 2025, developed in partnership with the GMC design team in Detroit. GM's design teams regularly work on conceptual design studies that are intended to drive ideation, innovation, and collaboration across the company. With the opening of the UK studio, GM continues to demonstrate its commitment to Europe as the company scales its Cadillac electric vehicle business there, while also preparing to launch Corvette sales across the UK and mainland Europe. The UK design studio is an integral part of GM's global design footprint, providing valuable insights into European customer and cultural trends and introducing new talent and fresh perspectives into GM's global network. GM's global design footprint also spans studios in Detroit, Los Angeles, Shanghai, and Seoul. The UK studio is led by Julian Thomson, a deeply experienced automotive designer who has worked with some of the industry's most recognized brands. The 24,584-square-foot Royal Leamington Spa studio, which employs more than 30 designers and creative team members, is outfitted for both digital and physical clay model development. "Our advanced design team's mandate extends well beyond creating production vehicles," said Michael Simcoe, senior VP of global design. "While they collaborate within our global design network on production and concept vehicle programs, these teams are primarily tasked with imagining what mobility could look like five, 10 and even 20 years into the future and driving innovation for GM." The Corvette nameplate has long been leveraged to introduce experimental cars, concepts and prototypes that push the boundaries of automotive design and engineering, and the new UK design concept is no exception. While there is no production intention behind this concept, the GM UK Design team undertook this exercise to rethink what a Corvette could be with a true blank-page approach. 'As part of the Corvette creative study, we asked multiple studios to develop hypercar concepts, which we'll see more of later this year' Simcoe said. 'It was important that they all pay homage to Corvette's historic DNA, but each studio brought their own unique creative interpretation to the project. That is exactly what our advanced design studio network is intended to do – push the envelope, challenge convention and imagine what could be.' The UK team's concept subtly incorporates Corvette's iconic design heritage into a futuristic aesthetic focused on clean forms and muscular shapes. The design draws inspiration from the aviation industry, both in the sculptural and functional elements. 'One of the most unusual and significant aspects of our concept's design is a feature known as Apex Vision,' said Thomson. 'A nod to Corvette's centerline focus, and inspired by the iconic 'split window' 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray, this feature emphasizes a singular vertical central spine that is also a structural element, also providing a panoramic view of the road and surroundings.' The exterior design includes a distinctive division between the upper and lower halves of the vehicle. The upper half captures the Corvette's classic design elements, but in a futuristic manner. The lower half focuses on functional technical design, including EV battery technology embedded into the structure and aerodynamics elements designed to channel air efficiently without the need for wings or spoilers. Concept technical specifications and assumptions: Body structure: Additive manufacturing body structure For low mass, manufacturing efficiency, part count reduction and driving agility Halo roof structure with wind shield center spar Body panels: Additive manufactured structure exposed for light weight authenticity Part integration, panel count reduction Closures: Full wrap around side glass to deliver Apex Vision Powered wing door design Aero-Duality: On-road efficiency and on-track performance in harmony Fan assistance and active ducting to redirect air over and through the vehicle On-road: flowing forms, functional intakes and vented surfaces On road: air directed through vehicles to fill its wake, increasing efficiency and range On track: like an aircraft wing, aero surfaces reconfigure, dorsal fins deploy and spoiler venting creates aero vectoring to enhance cornering performance Sculpted underbody, lowered ride height and fan assistance delivers ground effect Chassis: Racecar inspired, package efficient, pushrod suspension set-up Interface: Windshield center spar augmented display Dimensions: 1033mm tall / 2178mm width / 4669mm length 22inch front wheel / 23inch rear wheel 127mm seat height – race car inspired -Ends- About General Motors Africa & Middle East Operations General Motors (NYSE:GM) is driving the future of transportation, leveraging advanced technology to build safer, smarter, and lower emission cars, trucks, and SUVs. GM's Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC brands offer a broad portfolio of innovative gasoline-powered vehicles and the industry's widest range of EVs, as we move to an all-electric future. The GM Africa & Middle East operations have been in the region for close to 100 years, now headquartered in Dubai, UAE with a manufacturing plant in Egypt. With a network of 17 distributors serving 29 countries, the organization has over 203 customer-facing rooftops to cater to countries in Africa, Levant, the GCC and other Middle Eastern countries. For more information, please visit Contact: Dialla Atallah GMC & Chevrolet Communications Manager
