General Motors has revealed a new concept car dubbed Buick Proxima, which was created at its Shanghai-based design studio and provides a glimpse into the group’s future all-electric line-up.
The Proxima is a zero-emissions sedan that features impressive gullwing doors and a spacious interior that’s supposed to provide a residential-like in-cabin experience. Penned by a young team of Chinese designers, the concept marks the restart of operations at GM’s expanded and renovated China Advanced Design Center and is intended for internal research.
In other words, don’t expect a similar road-going EV from Buick or any other brand in GM’s portfolio anytime soon, at least in the United States, as it’s a China-only affair, with the official press release mentioning that the concept “represents an outward expression of sophisticated simplicity and purity tailored for China’s technology-centric market environment.”
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However, we could see Chinese-influenced EVs coming to the States, as the company’s senior vice president of global design, Michael Simcoe, said that the Shanghai Advanced Design Center will be at the forefront of style for future GM products:
“China’s booming electric vehicle market, coupled with consumers’ strong desire for new technologies, has afforded GM’s designers a unique opportunity to revolutionize personal mobility,” he said. “The GM China Advanced Design Center serves as a leading tastemaker for GM’s future products.”
The China-based style center is one of four global advanced design centers and has undergone facility upgrades and doubled the size of its team since 2021. It can create digital and clay models and has a paint shop, as well as a CMF (color, material, and finish) department.
GM says that the Shanghai studio will “design in China for China” but will also provide “valuable insights and knowledge gained from experiential projects to influence GM’s global design.”
“We experiment with design as a solution for technology evolution and celebrate technology as a key driver behind innovative design,” said Stuart Norris, design vice president of GM China and GM International. “The rapid technology development in China is empowering designers to reimagine vehicles and reshape their own career paths.”
The Shanghai studio features a Mixed Reality setup that can be used in a universal seating buck, as well as a vehicle configurator and 3D glasses-free review applications powered by Unreal Engine.
As always, we’d like to know what you think about this, so head over to the comments section to give us your thoughts.
