The results are in for the Royal College of Art (RCA) Vehicle Design program's competition for the Opel - Vauxhall of the year 2049 that was co-sponsored by General Motors Europe. The winning concept is the Opel Darwin 2049 created by Augustin Barbot from France. The 25-year-old's proposal, which was selected among 18 other concept models, was designed to hover about 100mm above the ground by electro-magnetic power or in the sea like a submarine.
According to Barbot, the energy to move the lightweight vehicle is produced by three turbines, two at the front and one at the back.
The young designer's prize will be to spend three months working at General Motors Europe Design Center in Rüsselsheim, Germany. Furthermore, the automaker also decided to recognize the efforts of two other students, Hyunjoon Park (25) of South Korea and Miika Heikkinen (26) of Finland, who will both join Barbot to Russelsheim to meet and work with the GM design team.
"The standard of overall work was excellent; everything we saw was very forward thinking and anticipated both practical and emotional needs of mobility. Augustin did a good job interpreting the brief from an Opel/Vauxhall perspective, building on our commitment to electric vehicles and anticipating tomorrow's mobility needs," said GME's advance design chief Lo.
"It's clear from the new Insignia that GM Europe is going through a design revolution and judging from the sales figures, good design is now on top of everyone's agenda," said RCA Vehicle design director Harrow.
