Tag Archives: Automotive

The Bike Saddle 3D-Printed and Hand-Stitched in France

Posted on by

Most conversations about technology and craft follow the same script. Technology is fast, scalable, cold. Craft is slow, precious, warm. The two might share a showroom floor or a mood board, but they rarely share a philosophy. Mahdi Naïm’s AERIS bicycle saddle disagrees with that entire premise, and the disagreement is worth paying attention to.

AERIS is not a bicycle saddle that happens to look interesting. It is a bicycle saddle built around a single, demanding question: what if 3D printing and traditional craft weren’t layered on top of each other, but designed together from the very first sketch? That shift in thinking, from assembly to co-authorship, is what separates AERIS from the dozen other “tech meets heritage” products that surface at design fairs every season.

Designer: Mahdi Naim

The structure is built on a lattice produced through high-precision photopolymerization, specifically SLA and DLP printing, in high-performance elastomer resin. The geometry is not decorative. It is functional in the most literal sense: the lattice density changes across three zones of the saddle, denser where firm support is needed under an aerodynamic riding position, progressively softer through the transition zone, and open at the perineal relief zone to minimize pressure. No foam. No padding added to compensate for poor design thinking. The structure itself is the comfort system.

That kind of discipline is rare, and I say that as someone who has watched a lot of product design lean on material additions to solve problems that should have been solved earlier. Foam is easy. Getting the geometry right from the start is not. It takes conviction to design without a fallback.

The second layer, and I do mean the second design logic rather than a second material slapped on afterward, is where a French master saddler comes in. Full-grain vegetable-tanned leather, hand-stitched. The studio is clear that this is not an aesthetic decision. The leather works mechanically with the resin, distributing pressure and shear forces in ways that neither foam nor synthetic materials can match at equivalent weight. The interface between the two materials was designed during the modelling phase, not decided once the print came out of the machine.

This is the part I keep coming back to. The leather isn’t a finish. It isn’t branding. It is the second structural argument in the same conversation, and the conversation started before any material was touched. That level of intentionality is genuinely unusual, even among products that wear the word “craft” proudly on their labels.

Mahdi Naïm himself is worth knowing, if you don’t already. He is an industrial designer, a Grand Maître Artisan, and a German Design Award laureate who runs his studio between Lyon and Casablanca. His practice sits at the intersection of French engineering and Moroccan craftsmanship, and AERIS reads like a project that could only come from someone fluent in both languages. The saddle doesn’t feel like a technology demonstration with craft applied on top, or a heritage object with a 3D-printed frame underneath. It feels like one object, made by two disciplines that had to agree on every decision before anything was built.

AERIS is still in active development and moving toward small-series production. The studio is in conversation with industrial partners in additive manufacturing and premium cycling. That means this isn’t a concept in the gallery-piece sense, displayed under glass and admired from a distance. It is a product that intends to be ridden.

Whether you cycle or not, whether you follow product design closely or just occasionally land on something that makes you stop scrolling, AERIS is the kind of object that rewards a second look. Not because it is visually striking, though it is, but because the thinking behind it is genuinely coherent. The lattice, the leather, the hand-stitching, the parametric modelling: none of it is decoration. All of it is argument. That is harder to pull off than it looks, and considerably rarer than the design world likes to admit.

The post The Bike Saddle 3D-Printed and Hand-Stitched in France first appeared on Yanko Design.

Smart Concept #2 reimagines the iconic city car as a fashion-forward electric micro-mobility commuter

Posted on by

Smart has always had a knack for making the smallest cars feel like big ideas. The original two-seater wasn’t just about transportation; it was a statement about how little you actually need to move through a city. With the smart Concept #2, that philosophy doesn’t just return, it gets reinterpreted through a far more expressive, almost fashion-led lens.

At first glance, the proportions instantly take you back. The compact, upright stance, near non-existent overhangs, and wheels pushed right to the corners are all deliberate callbacks to the original Fortwo. But this isn’t nostalgia for the sake of it. The Concept #2 stretches to about 2.79 meters subtly growing to create a bit more usable interior space while remaining firmly in microcar territory.

Designer: Smart

What’s interesting is how smart has shifted the conversation from pure utility to identity. The brand calls it “Function becomes Fashion,” and it shows. The matte white and warm gold two-tone finish feels more like a wearable than a vehicle, while details like strap-inspired elements on the bumpers and door handles borrow cues from luxury accessories rather than traditional automotive design. There’s even a subtle influence of sneaker culture in the textures and tire patterns, turning what would otherwise be functional surfaces into design statements.

This shift matters because the original smart succeeded in cleverness but struggled to evolve emotionally. Concept #2 attempts to fix that by making the car feel personal. It’s less about squeezing into tight parking spots (though it still excels at that) and more about how the object itself fits into your lifestyle. Underneath the stylized surface is a thoroughly modern EV architecture. Built on Smart’s new Electric Compact Architecture, the concept is designed to deliver the kind of urban usability that today’s drivers expect. The projected range sits close to 186 miles, which is more than sufficient for daily city use, while DC fast charging from 10 to 80 percent takes under 20 minutes, essentially the time it takes to grab a coffee.

The packaging remains its strongest trick. The signature “wheels-at-the-corners” layout maximizes cabin space within that tiny footprint, while a tight 6.95-meter turning circle makes the car feel almost pivot-like in dense urban environments. It’s the kind of manoeuvrability that reminds you why cars like the original Fortwo made sense in the first place. There’s also a subtle shift in how the car integrates into daily life. Features like Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) hint at a future where even the smallest cars double as mobile power sources—useful for everything from charging devices to supporting outdoor activities.

The bigger picture is just as important. Since becoming a joint venture between Mercedes-Benz and Geely, Smart has moved upmarket with crossovers and SUVs. Concept #2 feels like a deliberate course correction, returning to the brand’s core idea, but doing so with a premium edge shaped by Mercedes-Benz design sensibilities. Set to evolve into a production model debuting at the Paris Motor Show in late 2026, the Concept #2 is less of a wild design exercise and more of a near-production preview. That makes its details (both practical and expressive) feel intentional rather than experimental.

The post Smart Concept #2 reimagines the iconic city car as a fashion-forward electric micro-mobility commuter first appeared on Yanko Design.

Smart Concept #2 reimagines the iconic city car as a fashion-forward electric micro-mobility commuter

Posted on by

Smart has always had a knack for making the smallest cars feel like big ideas. The original two-seater wasn’t just about transportation; it was a statement about how little you actually need to move through a city. With the smart Concept #2, that philosophy doesn’t just return, it gets reinterpreted through a far more expressive, almost fashion-led lens.

At first glance, the proportions instantly take you back. The compact, upright stance, near non-existent overhangs, and wheels pushed right to the corners are all deliberate callbacks to the original Fortwo. But this isn’t nostalgia for the sake of it. The Concept #2 stretches to about 2.79 meters subtly growing to create a bit more usable interior space while remaining firmly in microcar territory.

Designer: Smart

What’s interesting is how smart has shifted the conversation from pure utility to identity. The brand calls it “Function becomes Fashion,” and it shows. The matte white and warm gold two-tone finish feels more like a wearable than a vehicle, while details like strap-inspired elements on the bumpers and door handles borrow cues from luxury accessories rather than traditional automotive design. There’s even a subtle influence of sneaker culture in the textures and tire patterns, turning what would otherwise be functional surfaces into design statements.

This shift matters because the original smart succeeded in cleverness but struggled to evolve emotionally. Concept #2 attempts to fix that by making the car feel personal. It’s less about squeezing into tight parking spots (though it still excels at that) and more about how the object itself fits into your lifestyle. Underneath the stylized surface is a thoroughly modern EV architecture. Built on Smart’s new Electric Compact Architecture, the concept is designed to deliver the kind of urban usability that today’s drivers expect. The projected range sits close to 186 miles, which is more than sufficient for daily city use, while DC fast charging from 10 to 80 percent takes under 20 minutes, essentially the time it takes to grab a coffee.

The packaging remains its strongest trick. The signature “wheels-at-the-corners” layout maximizes cabin space within that tiny footprint, while a tight 6.95-meter turning circle makes the car feel almost pivot-like in dense urban environments. It’s the kind of manoeuvrability that reminds you why cars like the original Fortwo made sense in the first place. There’s also a subtle shift in how the car integrates into daily life. Features like Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) hint at a future where even the smallest cars double as mobile power sources—useful for everything from charging devices to supporting outdoor activities.

The bigger picture is just as important. Since becoming a joint venture between Mercedes-Benz and Geely, Smart has moved upmarket with crossovers and SUVs. Concept #2 feels like a deliberate course correction, returning to the brand’s core idea, but doing so with a premium edge shaped by Mercedes-Benz design sensibilities. Set to evolve into a production model debuting at the Paris Motor Show in late 2026, the Concept #2 is less of a wild design exercise and more of a near-production preview. That makes its details (both practical and expressive) feel intentional rather than experimental.

The post Smart Concept #2 reimagines the iconic city car as a fashion-forward electric micro-mobility commuter first appeared on Yanko Design.

Volocopter makes comeback with VoloXPro that combines proven design with New eVTOL tech

Posted on by

Volocopter has launched a new eVTOL (electric Vertical Take-off and Landing) multicopter called VoloXPro that has some new impetus but rides on tested configurations from the company’s previous design. The German aerospace firm envisions the VoloXPro to be used in a range of applications, with the air taxi sector being one of the primary job roles at launch.

Volocopter, launched in 2019, had a glorious initial run. It was one of the most celebrated flying taxi startups in Europe after the launch of VoloCity eVTOL aircraft. One of the pioneers of air mobility using eVTOL aircraft, Volocopter, however, had a rough phase and struggled with aerospace certification and revenue generation. It was, in fact, on the verge of insolvency before its buyout by China’s Wanfeng Auto Holding Group, the owners of Diamond Aircraft in March 2025. VoloXPro now marks the return from the ashes for the German eVTOL company.

Designer: Volocopter

VoloXPro is Volocopter’s first announcement after the €10 million takeover. This emission-neutral eVTOL, the company says is a low-noise platform, capable of being used in a range of applications and different use cases. Volocopter was reportedly working on this new aircraft, which has the potential to alter personal transportation, tourism and medical emergencies, throughout 2025.

Lunched now at the ongoing AERO Friedrichshafen show, in Germany, the new VoloXPro is an all-electric two-seat VTOL aircraft. It can cruise at a top speed of 70mph, drawing power from 18 rotor sets in a circular pylon over the cabin. The aircraft shares a few components with VoloCity air taxi introduced sometime in 2022. For instance, the two share the modular cabin design and the multirotor configuration.

With the common components, the company is trying to play it safe. It hopes that this approach will allow it to keep the price of the VoloXPro affordable, and that, it shall help fast track the multicopter’s path to aerospace certification, since the safety of the shared configurations is already proven in the earlier VoloCity design. Volocopter is hopeful of attaining the required certifications for VoloXPro by the end of 2026.

In addition to the shared approach, Volocopter is packing the new eVTOL aircraft with new technological additions and a range of cockpit layout options. The idea of the latter is to make the aircraft ready for a host of applications for both private individuals and group operators. As noted above, the VoloXPro is now a two-person craft, which the maker is targeting at flying clubs, schools, and aviation enthusiasts. We do not have the exact details about battery capacity, but we learned that the aircraft will have a 40 km range and the ability to carry up to 154 kg of payload. Its maximum take-off weight is 600 kg.

The post Volocopter makes comeback with VoloXPro that combines proven design with New eVTOL tech first appeared on Yanko Design.

Skoda’s Inflatable Car Installation at Milan Design Week Looks Like a Bouncy Castle Grew Wheels

Posted on by

Cars belong to the world of hard surfaces, precision tolerances, and engineering constraints measured in fractions of millimeters. Ulises Studio works in the opposite direction. The Barcelona-based spatial design practice has spent years creating immersive environments that transform architecture into something tactile and experiential, turning rigid spaces into soft, inviting landscapes. Their installations have activated cultural venues and public spaces across Europe, and their approach is immediately recognizable: inflatable forms, vibrant color palettes, and a commitment to making people rethink how they interact with the built environment. When Skoda asked them to collaborate on an installation for Milan Design Week 2025, they brought that same philosophy to something designers rarely get to touch: an actual production car.

The Epiq, Skoda’s new electric SUV, became the canvas. Ulises Studio covered it entirely in inflatable fabric panels, each one a horizontal tube running across the body in a sequence of cheerful colors. Mint green, burnt orange, soft pink, butter yellow, pale turquoise. The effect is disarming. What should feel like a parked vehicle instead reads as a sculpture, a comment on automotive design language filtered through the lens of spatial intervention. Skoda staged it at Palazzo Senato with multiple Epiq vehicles, each wrapped in different inflatable treatments, creating a dialog between the engineered reality and Ulises Studio’s playful reinterpretation.

Designers: Ulises Studio & Skoda Design

The genius of the installation lies in how completely it transforms the car’s character without altering its underlying form. Every crease, every character line, every panel gap gets translated into soft, pillowy geometry. The horizontal tubes follow the Epiq’s actual contours, which means the inflatable version retains the proportions and stance of the real thing. You can still read it as a compact SUV, but now it feels approachable in a way sheet metal never could. The tactile quality is impossible to ignore. Your brain knows you’re looking at air-filled fabric wrapped around a vehicle, but your hands want to reach out and squeeze it anyway.

Ulises Studio didn’t stop at wrapping cars. They transformed the entire courtyard at Palazzo Senato into what they’re calling a “clay landscape,” an inflatable environment that extends the material language across the entire space. Oversized typography spelling out “Ooooh, that’s EpiQ” dominates one wall, each letter constructed from the same air-filled tubes. Smaller inflatable elements populate the courtyard like sculptural furniture, creating zones where visitors can pause and take in the installation from different angles. The floor itself gets treated to a matching mint-green surface that ties the whole environment together. This is spatial design at its most comprehensive, where every element reinforces the central idea.

What makes the collaboration work is that Ulises Studio treats the Epiq as part of a larger environmental narrative rather than the hero object that everything else orbits around. The cars are embedded in the landscape, surrounded by inflatable forms that share their material language and color palette. This creates a sense of cohesion that most automotive installations never achieve, where the vehicle feels like it genuinely belongs in the space rather than being awkwardly dropped into it. The studio’s background in creating immersive experiences shows in how they choreograph movement through the courtyard, using the placement of vehicles and sculptural elements to guide visitors through different zones of the installation. You don’t just look at the inflatable Epiq, you move around it, through the landscape it inhabits, encountering different perspectives and color relationships as you navigate the space.

Ulises Studio has always understood that spatial design is a form of storytelling. Their inflatable installations communicate ideas about accessibility, transformation, and how we experience objects in space. The Epiq installation applies that same thinking to automotive design. By swapping metal and glass for inflatable fabric, they strip away the aggression and seriousness that define most car launches and replace it with something genuinely delightful. The oversized inflatable typography spelling out “Ooooh, that’s EpiQ” reinforces the tone in a fairly Gen-Z coded way, allowing the brand to resonate with younger generations. This is design as spatial play, a reminder that objects can be functional and joyful simultaneously.

You’re an expert editor/blogger with a profound understanding of human psyche as well as Google SEO. Now generate 10 catchy, attention-grabbing, mildly provocative titles that are SEO-friendly too. Make your titles have natural language but craft them so they rank high on google News and Discover as of March 2026. Do your SEO research. Make them natural language, simple, yet captivating

The post Skoda’s Inflatable Car Installation at Milan Design Week Looks Like a Bouncy Castle Grew Wheels first appeared on Yanko Design.

Mohab Altus quick-deploy hardshell rooftop tent turns any rugged truck into comfy, all-season camping rig

Posted on by

Clumsy extensions, flimsy fabrics, and cumbersome installation of rooftop tents have often marred the camping experience for many, including the creators of the Altus – a mobile habitat. This was essentially before the hardshell tents made it to the scene. These tents are growing in number, and their differences in functionality are just making the space more clustered with undeniable options.

The Altus – Hardwall Rooftop Cabin – lands in an undeniable category, considering the well-rounded approach it brings to the rooftop tents. Created in Standard and XL models (difference based on size rather than functionality), the Altus by Denver-based Mohab is positioned as a hard-sided rooftop cabin that automatically goes from 8.7-inch drive height to 45-inch, livable quarter, in under 60 seconds.

Designer: Mohab

The claim is unsubstantiated at the time of writing, but if it’s anywhere around the quick timeframe, the setup definitely gets a five-star from me. That said, the way this electric-lift system of the cube really deploys is what makes the setup even more intriguing. As the videos on the product listing page on Mohab’s website show, on the click of the deploy button, the sidewalls of the cabin flex up to form a living space. The walls on the front and back flip down independently later, once the walls on the side have been erected. The Altus series comes with a manual deploy system as well. It allows users to set up the cabin without power.

Sitting atop the cuboid – they call the Altus – is its pop-up roof. This roof hinged at the rear, rises up on the front, creating standing headroom and a significant perch for your panoramic sighting of the surrounding vista on a clear day. You’ll want the all-weather housing (provided with heating and air conditioning) of the Altus to remain completely shut and airtight amid a downpour.

Coming to the construction, the Altus series hardwall rooftop cabins feature aluminum alloy frames and PET panels. The material used in construction allows the cabin a lightweight form factor: Altus weighs 120 kg, and the Altus XL is just 5 kg heavier at 125 kg. The former measures 93 x 54 inches, which is enough space for a double mattress. The XL model, on the other hand, measures 101 x 54 inches, which should provide space for an extra person to fit in. Both models have a similar design with slider windows on either side and a hinged pop-up roof.

The boxy, hard-walled Altus can conveniently mount on a range of rugged trucks and 4x4s with Mohab’s Fortis rack systems (sold separately). Of course, that’s a bump in the overall cost of the rooftop tent, but with the convenience and efficiency offered, the Altus definitely makes up for the extra cost. Price for the Altus rooftop cabin starts at $5,139 with a pickup bed rack. The Altus XL with a pickup mount starts at $5,449.

The post Mohab Altus quick-deploy hardshell rooftop tent turns any rugged truck into comfy, all-season camping rig first appeared on Yanko Design.

Gunther Werks Project Endgame is a bespoke 911 Speedster infused with Iron Man DNA

Posted on by

There’s always been a theatrical edge to Gunther Werks’ reinterpretations of the Porsche 911 (993), but Project Endgame pushes that idea into full cinematic territory. Conceived as a one-off Speedster commission and effectively the closing statement for the California-based restomod specialist’s open-top series, it fuses extreme performance engineering with a design language. Something that openly channels Iron Man’s energy in both form and function.

Built on the bones of a 993-generation 911, Project Endgame undergoes a complete transformation. Its most radical element is the twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter air-cooled flat-six, developed in collaboration with Rothsport Racing. Producing an immense 840 horsepower and 660 lb-ft of torque, the engine delivers its output through a six-speed manual transmission. This preserves the tactile, mechanical connection that defines analog driving, which purists absolutely value.

Designer: Gunther Werks

This combination of old-school air cooling paired with modern forced induction in more ways than not mirrors Iron Man’s own blend of legacy ingenuity and futuristic power. A classic example of how engineering evolves into something far more advanced. Weight reduction is equally obsessive with the experienced tuner. Extensive use of carbon fiber throughout the body keeps the car at roughly 2,600 pounds, creating a power-to-weight ratio that borders on hypercar territory. The aggressive stance, widened bodywork, and sculpted aerodynamics echo the armored silhouette of Iron Man’s suit.

The mirrored ethos of a machine that’s muscular, purposeful, and unmistakably engineered for speed and impact. The Speedster configuration, with its low windscreen and open cockpit, adds a sense of exposure that parallels the vulnerability beneath the armor, reinforcing the duality between raw human control and overwhelming machine capability. The Iron Man influence becomes even more explicit in the detailing. The exterior’s red-and-gold finish directly mirrors the superhero’s iconic suit, but it’s not just cosmetic.

Functional components such as intercoolers receive gold plating, a detail that reflects both performance optimization and visual storytelling—much like Tony Stark’s tendency to fuse engineering necessity with stylistic flair. The interplay of metallic tones across the bodywork gives the car a glowing, almost reactor-like presence, as if energy is constantly pulsing beneath its surface.

Inside, the cabin is a symphony of narrative space. A central design element between the seats evokes the arc reactor, the fictional energy source that powers Iron Man’s suit. This sculptural feature isn’t merely decorative; it anchors the interior’s identity, turning the cockpit into a symbolic command center. The gear shifter, embedded with gemstone accents, subtly references the precision and complexity of Stark’s technology, while bespoke materials and finishes throughout the cabin create an environment that feels engineered rather than assembled. Every surface, control, and accent appears intentional, reflecting the meticulous craftsmanship associated with Stark Industries.

Despite its dramatic theme, Project Endgame remains grounded in performance authenticity. The chassis, suspension, and braking systems are all engineered to handle the immense power output, ensuring that the car’s capabilities extend far beyond its visual impact. It’s not a static showpiece; it’s a fully realized driver’s machine that demands engagement and rewards skill.

As the final evolution of Gunther Werks’ Speedster program, Project Endgame serves as both a technical milestone and a creative culmination. It demonstrates how far the restomod concept can be pushed when engineering excellence meets narrative ambition.

The post Gunther Werks Project Endgame is a bespoke 911 Speedster infused with Iron Man DNA first appeared on Yanko Design.

BRABUS Urban E First Edition bring cyberpunk flair to premium electric motorcycles

Posted on by

German tuning specialist, BRABUS, has shown to what extremes four-wheeler modding can go when you’ve already got a powerful machine at hand. They’ve now partnered with DAB Motors to bring those surreal tuning exploits to the two-wheeler world with electric bikes revealed at Milan Design Week 2026. Built on the trusted DAB 1α electric platform, the trio of bikes is designed for urban riders, combining minimalist design with performance-driven engineering.

The standard DAB 1α BRABUS sets the tone with its stripped-back aesthetic, lightweight construction, and premium finishes that elevate it beyond a conventional electric motorcycle. Crafted with high-end materials like CNC-machined aluminum and carbon fiber, the bike reflects BRABUS’ signature approach, which prides itself on precision, exclusivity, and bold styling.

Designer: BRABUS x DAB Motors

The electric powertrain 1α BRABUS is tuned for city agility, offering brisk acceleration and a smooth, near-silent ride. This makes it ideal for navigating dense urban environments. The collaboration emphasizes craftsmanship as much as performance, with each component carefully designed to deliver both visual impact and functional efficiency. The bike has a starting price tag of €16,590 (approximately $19,500) and is currently up for pre-order with deliveries slated for the end of Q3 2026.

BRABUS Urban E

The BRABUS Urban E builds upon this foundation with a sharper focus on accessibility and everyday usability without compromising on the brand’s premium DNA. Designed as a more approachable model in the lineup, it retains the core elements of the DAB platform while introducing a refined aesthetic tailored for modern city commuters. The Urban E features a clean, understated design with subtle BRABUS detailing, blending seamlessly into urban landscapes while still standing out through its craftsmanship.

Its lightweight frame and compact proportions make it highly maneuverable, while the electric drivetrain ensures responsive performance suited for short-distance commuting. With an output of around 27 kW and torque figures pushing into high-performance territory for its size, the bike delivers quick acceleration and a lively riding character tailored for city use.

Positioned as a premium urban machine, the Urban E is priced at around €22,900 (approximately $27,000), reinforcing its place as a design-forward electric motorcycle rather than a mass-market commuter. Orders are open, with deliveries expected to begin in late 2026 across Europe and select global markets.

BRABUS Urban E First Edition

At the top of the range, the BRABUS Urban E First Edition takes exclusivity and design expression to another level. Limited to just 40 units globally and offered in distinct colorways, it is conceived as a collector’s piece rather than a conventional production bike. Each version carries a fully coordinated finish across body panels and structural elements, elevating it into a cohesive design object.

Visually, the bike carries a strong futuristic presence, with its sharp lines, minimal bodywork, and sculpted stance drawing comparisons to the iconic red motorcycle ridden by Shotaro Kaneda in Akira. While not a direct homage, the resemblance lies in its bold proportions and cyberpunk-inspired silhouette, giving the First Edition a cinematic quality that sets it apart in the electric mobility space.

This exclusivity is reflected in its pricing. The Urban E First Edition starts at around €32,500 (approximately $38,000) and can climb beyond €38,000 (approximately $44,000) depending on market and taxes, placing it firmly in the realm of collectible design rather than everyday transport. Availability is limited to select regions, including Europe and the UK, with deliveries also scheduled for late 2026.

With this surprise collaboration, BRABUS and DAB Motors are translating high-performance tuning philosophy into a new category, one where electric mobility meets bespoke craftsmanship, shaped for a future where even the daily ride carries a sense of occasion.

The post BRABUS Urban E First Edition bring cyberpunk flair to premium electric motorcycles first appeared on Yanko Design.

Lexus LS Concept First-Look: The Six-Wheel Flagship Turning Heads at Milan Design Week 2026

Posted on by

Six wheels on a Lexus, at a furniture fair in Milan, sounds like either a provocation or a punchline. At this year’s Milan Design Week, Lexus is betting it’s the former. The brand rolled into Superstudio Più in the Tortona district with its LS Concept, a long-body, flat-roofed, twin rear-axle machine that first appeared at the Japan Mobility Show in 2025. It’s a chauffeur-driven vehicle built entirely around the passenger, and it’s Lexus’s clearest statement yet about where its flagships are going. In fact, Chief Branding Officer Simon Humphries said it plainly: the “S” in LS no longer stands for Sedan. It stands for Space.

The car sits inside an installation called SPACE, a fittingly simple name for a big idea. The LS Concept is wrapped in a cylindrical LED screen that’s always moving, cycling through textures and color palettes that wash over the car’s matte metallic finish. The whole thing sits on a low turntable, rotating slowly so you can take in every angle while the screen behind it blurs the line between the vehicle and its environment. From the back, the body is dark and geometric, with red light cleanly tracing the corners and the LEXUS wordmark centered like a final statement. The front has no grille at all, just a wide bar of white light, a dark glassy face, and some sharp diagonal cuts at the lower corners. The side profile is what really sells the scale of it all; the greenhouse is so long and flat it forces you to rethink what a luxury car is supposed to look like.

Designer: Lexus

You’ll notice those sharp diagonal white light signatures at the corners of both the front and back, and they do a great job of anchoring your eye so you don’t get lost in all that surface area. The front is an exercise in restraint, especially for Lexus. There are no intakes, no heritage cues, and definitely no spindle grille, which defined the brand’s look for fifteen years. Instead, a single, clean bar of white light carries the Lexus name across the top, and below it, dark glass sweeps down like a theater curtain. The back is just as clean, with black geometric planes and red light tracing the corners so precisely it feels more like sculpture than taillights. There’s also a louvered panel on the rear quarter that looks both cool and functional, the kind of detail you have to go back and look at a second time.

The twin rear wheels are probably the first thing that throws you off, but the more you look at them, the more they make sense. A six-wheel layout, something you usually see on overland vehicles or high-end coaches, lets Lexus pack in a huge amount of interior volume without the big wheel arches that eat up space in most long cars. The turbine-style wheel covers keep the look clean, where normal spokes would have ruined the effect. When you see it from the side, the lower body looks like a single sculpted piece, and the way it tucks under itself makes the whole thing feel like it’s floating. Lexus is basically saying that a vehicle with the footprint of a small bus can be the next word in luxury, and after a few minutes, you start to believe them.

Step through the door, framed in a bright white light, and you see what they mean by hospitality. A slatted wood panel runs up the entire wall of the cabin, a single rear seat is finished in cream and burgundy leather, and the floor is so open you get the sense it was designed for standing as much as sitting. The real achievement here is how Lexus managed to package so much genuine room inside; it feels more like a small, well-designed living space than a stretched-out car. Whether any of this makes it to production is anyone’s guess, and Lexus seems happy to leave that question hanging in the air.

What Lexus is showing here is a clear signal of where its design thinking is headed, and that alone makes it one of the most interesting things you can see in Milan this year. If you want to see it for yourself, you can experience the SPACE installation and the Lexus LS Concept at the Daylight Hall in Superstudio Più, located in the Tortona district, from April 21st to the 26th.

The post Lexus LS Concept First-Look: The Six-Wheel Flagship Turning Heads at Milan Design Week 2026 first appeared on Yanko Design.

Aston Martin Veil Concept Reimagines What Comes After the Valkyrie Hypercar

Posted on by

Aston Martin’s hypercar trajectory over the past decade has followed a clear arc: the Valkyrie brought F1 aerodynamics to road car design, the Valkyrie AMR Pro pushed that concept to track-only extremes, and the Valhalla promised a more accessible (relatively speaking) interpretation of the same philosophy. Hyunwoo Kim’s Veil concept asks a different question entirely. What if you took that same performance intent but wrapped it in surfaces that flow like liquid metal rather than faceted carbon fiber? The result is a hypercar concept that trades the Valkyrie’s angular muscularity for something closer to organic sculpture, where every surface transition happens so smoothly you’d need calipers to find the break points. The teal paint, a near-perfect match for Aston’s current F1 team livery, catches light like water, emphasizing the continuous curves that define the entire form language.

Kim developed the concept through an unusual process that started with paper mock-ups, physically exploring three-dimensional forms before committing to digital modeling. The approach paid off in ways that pure CAD work rarely does, producing proportions and surface relationships that feel discovered rather than designed. From above, the Veil reads like a manta ray or a fighter jet, with massive rear fender volumes extending from a central spine that bisects the cockpit. The track photography showing the concept alongside Aston Martin F1 team members suggests this caught someone’s attention at Gaydon, which makes sense. This is the kind of design exploration that belongs in a manufacturer’s advanced studio, where production constraints can be temporarily suspended in service of pushing the brand’s visual language into new territory.

Designer: Hyunwoo Kim

The cockpit architecture is pure Le Mans Hypercar, with a central spine running the length of the cabin that appears to house structural elements while creating a visual separation between driver and passenger space. The canopy looks like a single piece of formed glass, which would be a nightmare to federalize but makes perfect sense for a track-focused prototype where visibility and weight reduction matter more than crash regulations. That spine continues rearward past the cabin, creating a vertical stabilizer element that would provide high-speed stability without the drag penalty of a traditional rear wing. It’s smart aero thinking disguised as sculptural drama.

The rear fender volumes are doing the heavy lifting here, both literally and aerodynamically. They’re not just aesthetic flourishes but functional channels that guide air along the body sides and over the rear diffuser, creating the kind of ground-effect downforce that current regulations are pushing Le Mans prototypes toward. The negative space carved between those fenders and the central body creates tunnels that would accelerate airflow underneath the car, feeding the diffuser with high-velocity air for maximum suction. You can see diffuser strakes underneath, multiple elements suggesting active management of that airflow to prevent stall at different speeds and ride heights.

From above, the silhouette becomes even more dramatic. A central spine runs from the nose through the cockpit and terminates at the rear, bisecting the car into two distinct halves. This isn’t purely stylistic theater. That spine likely houses a vertical stabilizer fin, the kind of element you’d find on the Valkyrie AMR Pro or the Mercedes-AMG One, designed to provide high-speed stability without the drag penalty of a massive fixed rear wing.

The front end is deliberately minimal, almost to the point of being featureless. There’s no traditional grille, because there’s likely no traditional front-mounted radiator. Cooling has been pushed to the side intakes, which are substantial enough to handle serious heat rejection from what would presumably be a mid-mounted hybrid powertrain. The headlights are slim horizontal elements that emphasize width rather than aggression, a departure from the angry-eye aesthetic that dominates the current hypercar segment. It’s a more mature approach, one that prioritizes visual cleanliness over intimidation.

The diffuser dominates the rear view, with multiple vertical strakes channeling air from underneath the car. This suggests the Veil relies heavily on ground effect for downforce, using the floor as a giant wing to generate vertical load without the drag penalty of traditional aero elements. It’s the same philosophy underpinning the current generation of F1 cars and Le Mans prototypes, where managing airflow underneath the car has become more critical than what happens above it. The exhaust outlets are integrated into the diffuser structure, which is both aesthetically cleaner and functionally smarter than the typical quad-pipe arrangements you’d find on a Lamborghini or Pagani.

What makes the Veil genuinely compelling is how it navigates the tension between heritage and innovation. Aston Martin’s design language has always leaned heavily on elegance, even when building something as unhinged as the Valkyrie. The Veil preserves that elegance while acknowledging that the next generation of hypercars will be shaped more by aerodynamics and electrification than by nostalgic callbacks to DB5s and vintage racers. The form is contemporary without being aggressively futuristic, a balance that’s harder to strike than it looks. If Aston’s internal advanced design studio isn’t already exploring something similar, they should be.

The post Aston Martin Veil Concept Reimagines What Comes After the Valkyrie Hypercar first appeared on Yanko Design.