1 | 2 Ford of Europe's Design team has interpreted the Company's distinctive new 'kinetic design' form language in an exciting new crossover concept - the iosis X – which makes its debut at the 2006 Paris Motor Show.
"We're calling this car iosis X as a deliberate link to our 'kinetic design' concept car lineage started last year," said Martin Smith, Ford of Europe's Executive Design Director. "The link is not just in the name – there's a strong visual relationship between the two cars, and the 'X' signals the new vehicle's crossover capabilities."
"The iosis X is an exciting five-door sports-crossover that proves we can extend the boundaries of kinetic design into a niche market vehicle,” added Smith. "It takes our 'energy in motion' philosophy even further and shows how different Ford cars will be in the future."
One of the specific purposes of iosis X is to prepare the public for the introduction of a future Ford of Europe niche model.
"There's been a lot of speculation about Ford producing a compact crossover or Sport Utility vehicle," said John Fleming, President and CEO, Ford of Europe. "The iosis X is intended to send a very strong message that we will be entering this market in around eighteen months from now, and that our new model will be both stylish and individual."
Ford iosis X is very clearly a concept and is not intended to be representative of this future production model. Instead, it sets out to explore the ways in which Ford's kinetic design form language and detailing can be applied to a niche vehicle in a rugged and exciting way.
"Customers will be able to get a feel for the design direction our production model will take, and when we do reveal that model next year the relationship between it and the iosis X will be immediately apparent," Smith explained.
In a stunning concept at Frankfurt 2005, Martin Smith and his team revealed the new form language that ultimately will be applied in varying levels across Ford's future European vehicle portfolio. The original iosis presented all of the key elements of what Ford identified as 'kinetic design' in their purest form.
“The iosisConcept has been a great ambassador for Ford design,” said Smith, adding “the reception it received from the public and the media gave us the confidence to stretch our design team even further for future Ford vehicles.”
Part of the task since iosis has been to widen the audience for this new look, and to generate a heightened expectation for what Ford is going to do next and demonstrate how 'kinetic design' could translate into other market segments.
The signal for that future direction is now revealed in iosis X. This dramatic concept car sends a clear message that the look of Ford’s European products is changing. Already, elements of kinetic design are appearing in Ford's latest new production models such as the Ford S-MAX and the all-new 2007 Ford Mondeo.
But, as with its concept predecessor, iosis X is not intended to be a future Ford production vehicle.
"What iosis X does do is to move our customers' understanding of our new design language on further," Smith concluded. "It demonstrates that 'kinetic design' is becoming a consistent and enduring reality in Ford's future and it assures them that when Ford enters this particular sector of the market, it will be with an individual and dynamic product that shares much of the excitement of this Concept."
“Feel the difference” – iosis X on the outside
“One of the aspects people recognised and liked about the original iosis was the considered complexity of the forms,” observed Stefan Lamm, Ford of Europe’s chief exterior designer, before explaining that “we wanted to explore and demonstrate how kinetic design could work on a high packaged body. This was one of the challenges for us, to maintain this dramatic, emotional design language on a car like iosis X.”
Lamm and his team were keen to exploit what appears to be an emerging trend for sporting crossovers or SUVs and a movement away from the traditional two-box styling that dominates the segment irrespective of vehicle size. "This opportunity suits kinetic design perfectly – iosis X is more of a four-door coupé crossover which is very compact and emphasises Ford’s driving dynamics."
Lamm and his team wanted to move the 'kinetic design' story on while retaining all of the key elements of the form language. As a result, the chunky five-door sports coupé crossover couldn’t be more different in its stance and dimensions to the original iosis Concept, a sleek muscular four-door coupé, yet the two are undeniably linked.
"This vehicle shows how we can apply kinetic design principles to a different type of vehicle," said Martin Smith. "We’ve taken all the key themes and graphic elements first seen on iosis and morphed them into a very sporty crossover with the footprint of a compact C-segment car.”
At the front, iosis X features the bold new Ford of Europe face translated into a more rugged look to convey the strength of the vehicle.
Most noticeable are the strong inverted trapezoid elements, including a prominent lower grille section.
"The dominant lower inverted trapezoidal grille is now a really strong brand element,” commented Lamm.
Appropriately for a crossover, the lower grille has been enhanced further by reducing the upper grille to little more than a ram air intake – a horizontal slot bisected by a bright metal bar and featuring a deliberately large Ford blue oval badge that appears to be thrusting forwards from within the engine bay.
Impending pedestrian impact legislation has influenced Ford's distinctive approach to front overhang and headlamp design. The front corners are aggressively chamfered, reducing the apparent size of the overhang, while the large headlamps follow the chamfering into the front wings, resulting in a distinctive kicked back appearance.
"Rather than see the pedestrian protection legislation as an inhibitor to the design philosophy, we now treat it as a positive design attribute," said Smith. "To accommodate the required volume in the front of the vehicle we have not only chamfered the corners back, but we have included a deep offset from the top of the hood to the front wings, creating a distinctive shoulder that runs along the side of the car to the rear."
In side profile, muscular surfacing and these strong and athletic shoulders run through the car, and are underscored by a dynamic undercut line that gives iosis Xan extremely dynamic stance, further enhanced by very bold wheel lips. Air vents aft of the front wheel arches, a key signature on the original iosis, appear also on iosis X, drawing air from the front brakes.
Side doors hinge outwards at the leading edge of the front door and rear edge of the smaller back door and are designed without a ‘B’ pillar to give easy access and an uninterrupted view of the stunning interior.
“When the car is viewed from three-quarters, either front or rear, the last visual points you should see are the wheels, and that’s just the case with iosis X," asserts Lamm. "I especially like looking at the car from the rear three-quarters view because that emphasises the undercut which develops in a different direction to the original iosis, with a stronger shadow at the rear gradually fading out to the front."
As well as balancing the proportions between the upper and lower body sections, this undercut gives the car its sleek proportions, and it seems to be moving forwards even when standing still. This is further emphasised by the swooping roofline and daylight opening that has a coupé-like profile at the rear. The resulting confident stance of iosis X belies its relatively compact C-segment size.
In addition to leading the eye around each of the corners at the front, acute chamfering also serves to disguise the longer rear overhang.
"It needs to be longer at the rear otherwise the roof line would stop abruptly and the car would look quite truncated,” explained Lamm.
Rugged and dynamically formed 'skid plate' claddings on the lower part of the vehicle stand off from the body and create a very new look.
“Usually there is some dark plastic or painted, grained plastic in the rocker area," Lamm explained. "We decided to move in a different direction and designed 'skid plates' as separate elements on the car that aren’t integrated into the shape but floating on the side panels. These were inspired by the aerodynamic foils we see on the side of a Formula One car.”
At the side, these 'skid plates' fold down to act as a step for easy access into the vehicle. They are fitted with rubber treads featuring the same patterns used in the tyres.
Key elements of kinetic design are trapezoidal shapes and three-dimensional forms and the interplay between them. Whilst the inverted grille at the front is the most obvious trapezoidal graphic it appears in many other interpretations throughout the exterior: the intakes at the front, the chamfers at the base of the windscreen and rear window, within the wheels, in the ‘C’ post kink and the ridges running down the bonnet are all elements of this basic shape.
A bird’s eye view is the best illustration of iosis X’s 'three-plane plan" form but this is also hinted at within the unique wheels which Lamm considers to be the most extreme so far designed by his team. “Mixing the finishes within the wheels heightens the three-dimensional effect, especially on the perimeter castings that look as if they could almost be scooping the mud and water out of the way.”
Lighting elements have developed significantly since the original iosis, and for iosis X, the team has been able to capitalise on the use of latest lamp technology.
Both front and rear lamps deploy LEDs in a highly detailed execution featuring swept back top edges. But what excites Lamm is not just their 3-D structure but the way in which they seamlessly follow the contours of the body.
"Too many vehicles feature elements that look as if they’re attached to the surface or are poking through apertures that have been cut into the body work," clamed Lamm. "That’s not the case with iosis X. The lamps appear to be formed as one with the surface, which gives a terrific 3-D effect and, if you look at the rear lights, you can see obvious links to the new S-MAX and Galaxy.”
Wing section door mirrors housing spotlights are mounted high up on the ‘A’ pillars while the rear fog lamp runs the width of the car above the rear skid plate that also floats away from the bodywork.
There was intense debate about the car’s colour before the team arrived at their final choice.
Unusually for this class of vehicle, iosis X is finished in an icy, brilliant white chilled further by a blue 'flip' effect in the paint finish which is set off by twin silver stripes running the length of the bonnet and etched into the glass roof.
“Most products of this type tend to be modern interpretations of moss green or greys. We thought it would be fun to do iosis X in a sheer white. That's appropriate for us as we have a history of using white to good effect - think of the GT40s and rallying Escorts – and the current Fiesta ST is very popular in white with blue racing stripes,” Smith said.
“It’s not a pure white, because that would make the car look pretty heavy," explained Lamm. "The paint we have created features a blue 'flip' effect that changes tone with light and helps describe the forms and shapes in the car."
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