An Audi advertisement greets visitors at the luggage carousel at Beijing Airport: the A8 “Horch” is advertised. The luxury sedan with the highest equipment only bears the historical name in China: two-tone paint, large radiator grille, powerful aluminum wheels, lots of chrome, a crowned “H” on the C-pillar – this is how German car managers imagine luxury cars for the Chinese. But the mostly young customers in the Middle Kingdom are no longer attracted to such bling-bling cars – like the similarly overloaded Mercedes-Maybach. You want a different design, fresher, simpler, not so cluttered.
Luminaries at work – China’s new car design style has German roots
