See the Geely Vision Starburst in the metal

Geely isn’t holding back the punches when it comes to being a brand to reckon with alongside its more mainstream rivals. Apart from various technologies adopted as a result of its automotive acquisitions, the company also has some interesting takes as far as design is concerned.

Vision Starburst Designer Talk on Concept Car Design Language for Geely Auto

One such example is the Vision Starburst concept car it unveiled recently, penned by Geely Design Shanghai. In keeping with its celestial-inspired theme, the Chinese automaker says that the form is a modified rendering of its Expanding Cosmos design language. In a walkaround video, Geely Design Shanghai exterior design director Brandon Pan takes viewers on a tour of the Vision Starburst’s unique styling.         

Geely says that the Vision Starburst's design is an alternative to the Expanding Cosmos aesthetic 

“Vision Starburst is not a departure from, but more of a continued exploration, of this same,” Pan explains. “When a star is born, we have this incredible event, a wave of energies generated, twisting and turning. This birth of a star is what we call starburst. It’s an expression of infinite possibilities, and the inspiration of the Vision Starburst concept.”

The concept car showcases sharper and more obvious visual cues from the more elegant and subdued aesthetic normally seen on Geely’s production models. This is most evident at the front, where conventional headlamps are replaced by pop-up Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) sensors accompanied by an LED strip outlining the entire fascia. According to Pan, this removes the limits of having to design the front around what would traditionally be the ‘eyes’ of the car.

LIDAR sensors are placed where the headlamps would normally be

Intersecting lines on the profile complement ‘Argon gas glow’ lights surrounding the wheel housings. At the back, the rear lamps have been configured into an X shape, bridged by another LED strip spanning the width of the car.

Suicide doors on the sides swing upward for access into the cabin. The digital instrument panel melds seamlessly with the surrounding ambient lights on the dashboard and door panels. Pan says this seemingly borderless control layout is bound to alter the way we interact with cars someday. “By integrating the vehicle’s instruments, we also aim to make the interaction between car and the user natural and intuitive, pushing for a new way to approach human-machine interaction.”

The instrument panel blends with the panel lights on the dashboard

Will this herald an upcoming Geely model? Not necessarily. “With our Vision Starburst, we want to explore where technology will take the future of car design,“ he notes. “The elements you see here will not replace our Expanding Cosmos design language but offer an alternative design vision which we look forward to exploring more.”

For Geely, the future of the automobile as we know it is truly written in the stars.  

See more of what the future holds in automotive design at Philkotse.com.