Car Design News spoke to Taiji Toyota, deputy managing director of Nissan and Dongfeng’s Chinese joint venture, Venucia, about the brand’s evolution and increasing product independence
The plain tree-lined streets of Shanghai’s former French Concession may seem a strange place for a car design studio, yet here, hidden away on the top floor of a mixed retail and leisure development, big plans are afoot. At the 2011 Shanghai Auto Show a variety of new local brands by international players burst onto the scene – partly for political reasons and partly to tap into lower-tier markets which demanded cheaper cars.
The most successful today is Baojun, partly owned by General Motors. However, the only other one of these brands that remains significant is Venucia – created by Nissan with its JV partner Dongfeng. Starting out with a rebadged first-generation Nissan Tiida and Leaf, Venucia in the beginning largely worked with tried and trusted Nissan models. But today with sales of around 140,000 a year, Venucia is keen to break away from that past.
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GM’s newly expanded design studio in Shanghai will likely play a key role in its electrification plans
Shortlisted for a China Award in 2013, Pengfei Kang has since built a successful career in automotive design. Now a senior designer at the Volkswagen Group Innovation Center Asia, Kang has returned to judge the new crop of hopefuls competing in Car Design Awards China 2021. We spoke to Kang about his career to date, his memories of the competition and his current work
Design standards in China have progressed rapidly since the inaugural China Awards in 2010. Car Design News highlights some of the most successful institutions from the last decade of the competition, speaks to the alumni and design heads that form this burgeoning creative design scene
