On December 1st, Garage 42 was invited to attend T-Talk, a special event for Tesla’s chief designer Franz von Holzhausen, at the Tesla Gigafactory in Shanghai, where they had a remote conversation.
Before the event began, Tesla’s Vice President of External Affairs, Tao Lin, introduced that Franz had not talked to the media in recent years and it was his first time communicating with Chinese media. Tesla will also try to organize more team members such as engineers in the service system and manufacturing in order to communicate more with everyone.
Before joining Tesla in 2008, Franz worked for 8 years at the Volkswagen Group, where he participated in new Beetle design projects, Audi TT and other projects. Later, he spent 5 years at General Motors designing the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky. In 2005, he became the North American Design Director at Mazda, leading the design of the Mazda Kabura and Furai concept cars. After joining Tesla, Franz led the design of the Model S, Model X, Model 3, Model Y, Cybertruck, Semi electric truck, and the second-generation Roadster.
Below is a record of their conversation at the event:
Q: When it comes to Tesla’s design, the first thing that comes to mind is the falcon-wing doors on the Model X. How did you come up with the idea for such a door, and where did the inspiration come from?
Franz:
- Elon and I were discussing how to make the car very convenient. For SUVs, both sliding doors and traditional doors are not very convenient for the rear seats, especially traditional sliding doors take up a lot of space and are not very convenient in parking lots.
- Model X is designed with three rows of seats, so we need to think about how to get in and out more easily. The most important principle is not to take up space, as much as possible, to maximize the opening, especially for the third row. I think this door is quite successful, and it looks very cool.
Q: Why did Tesla consider making the Cybertruck?
Franz:
- We have been considering making pickup trucks for a long time, and we have tried various solutions, hoping to do it very well and have a real impact. It is difficult to enter the pickup truck market, but other brands like Ford do not seem to have changed their pickup trucks for fifty or sixty years. We think there is an opportunity here to break some paradigms, solve some problems, rather than follow the current model.– 自动驾驶给 Model 3 内饰设计带来了很大的影响。因为我们需要考虑到交互和安全性，所以内饰要更加简洁清晰。同时，我们也要保证驾驶员在自动驾驶模式下能够轻松地切换到手动驾驶模式，因此我们需要设计出符合人体工程学的操作按钮和控制杆。总体来说，自动驾驶对于车辆内饰设计带来了很多新的考虑因素。- 特斯拉的设计师和工程师有着密切的合作。在开始设计时，工程师们提供了技术上的限制和可行性，这帮助设计师们更好地理解他们可以做到什么。同时，设计师们也要确保他们所提供的设计是可行的，并且能够在生产环节中实现。
- 我们通常不会出现工程师把设计推翻的情况。相反，我们尝试寻找平衡点，以确保最终产品既有吸引力，又具有可行性。最终，我们设计出的产品是通过设计师和工程师紧密合作得到的。- One thing Tesla does very well is interdisciplinary and cross-engineering collaboration. We are problem-oriented and work together as a community to find solutions. We don’t have independent island thinking. I believe there is a difference between design and art. Art is highly personal work, but design requires problem-solving skills and a high aesthetic sense to provide users with a better experience.
- We always have a very good working relationship with engineers. We developed Tesla’s prototype vehicles together. I remember when we were developing the Model S, the prototype vehicles we developed couldn’t be mass-produced. We started with our own design ideas and then polished them together with the engineers. The door handles, for example, were ideas that we came up with in collaboration with the engineers. We want to bring innovative ideas to the market and give people a feeling of a mass-produced prototype car that is better than the prototype vehicle.
Q: If you couldn’t achieve both efficiency and beauty at the same time, how would you choose?
Franz:
- There is always a solution that can make things better. If we’re talking about engineering, it’s about pursuing efficiency. Our initial plan wasn’t very good, but if we keep working hard, the goal will be achieved.
- Tesla’s aerodynamics experts come from F1 and the aviation field. Many times, the solutions they come up with don’t make the car look beautiful, so we have to change the solution. Our challenge is to continue to discuss with them and get better results. We have to persevere throughout this process. The Model 3 doesn’t look very aerodynamic, but in fact, the aerodynamics are very good.
Q: Have you been inspired by industries other than the automotive industry?
Franz:
- Our challenge is to create products for the future in design and thinking. We plan to launch new cars in the next two years, but what we design now may not be applicable then, just like the fashion industry, the iteration is very fast. So we will look at future trends while not sticking to what others have done.
- A lot of inspiration comes from Elon Musk, who himself can give people a lot of inspiration. But if we don’t have so many experts, we may not be able to achieve it.
Q: From a design perspective, will car models such as SUVs, MPVs, and sports cars disappear after achieving FSD full autonomous driving?
Franz: I think history has already proven that we hope to have more attractive products. We want to maintain some personalized things, and this is what Tesla has always been doing. The last thing we want is for every car to look exactly like a bubble car. We hope our products will be attractive and provide you with a great experience.### Q: The design trend of multiple screens in cars is popular, why does Tesla stick to a single screen?
Franz: Model S/X also have 2 screens. They are fast cars and the assisted driving is getting better. Tesla’s philosophy is to make electric cars affordable for everyone, so sometimes we have to remove some expensive parts, but at the same time, we want to provide good experience for both drivers and passengers.
Q: In the era of traditional fuel cars, there was a design DNA that unified the brand. Does Tesla have such design language constraints?
Franz: We believe that every car has the best solution and we don’t have to consider traditional things too much. We hope everyone can buy something unique and not available elsewhere.
Q: Other designers usually share their designs in concrete terms, but you always emphasize efficiency. What’s the reason behind it?
Franz: Our cars must be very unique and buyers must feel good about their purchase. I can also talk about specific products, but we hope to provide the best experience with minimal parts.
Q: I heard that Tesla plans to establish a design center in China. Will you come?
Franz: The design center may not be in Shanghai, but it will be in China. We want to increase our presence in China, and we know that there are many outstanding talents locally. In terms of design and engineering, it’s best for local people to do local designs. We are actively exploring this possibility.
Q: Do you have anything to say to Chinese customers?
Franz: We are very happy to see so many friends supporting Tesla in China. We hope to leave a better living environment for our descendants. Thanks for supporting Tesla. We don’t want you to give up anything for choosing electric cars. We hope to hear your feedback every day to help us improve our products. We will also launch more exciting products in the future, and we are very advanced in autonomous driving, and we are getting better every day. We hope everyone can join us to change the world.
Tao Lin: We rarely face the media, and as Franz just mentioned, we emphasize efficiency a lot. You can feel our speed in both products, factories and charging infrastructure. We hope to communicate efficiently with the media and meet everyone’s needs as much as possible.
The above is a record of the on-site dialogue brought to you by Garage 42. We welcome everyone to participate in the comment section. Until tomorrow noon, we will select the most wonderful one from the comments and give away a small gift as shown in the picture below.
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.