VW’s design chief says it’s harder to design a small car than a hypercar

Andreas Mindt says it was “so easy” to design the Bentley Batur instead of the VW ID.2all.

Earlier this year, the Volkswagen Group announced that Bentley design chief Andreas Mindt would be moving to VW’s flagship brand to replace Jozef Kaban from 1 February. Mindt began his career at the German car conglomerate in 1996 and was involved in the design process. of the first generation Tiguan and the Golf Mk7. He also worked on the Audi A1, Q3, Q8 and E-Tron GT, as well as the 1999 Bentley Hunaudières concept.

In an interview with Top Gear magazine, Mindt said it was “so easy” to design the Bentley Batur as opposed to the Volkswagen ID2.all concept, the first project in his new work. He explained that designing the Continental GT-based Batur was easy because it is a wide, low car with a long hood.

Volkswagen ID.2all Concept

“It’s like taking a penalty kick in soccer without a goalkeeper. It’s easy to do. A lot of people think hypercar designers are geniuses, but it’s really easy to do. To make a small car like the ID.2toto you need a lot of work . and people don’t understand that. It’s harder to design. When you look at things like the Fiat Panda, those are the genius designers in my eyes, not the ones who make hypercars. I don’t want to hurt anybody, but I know both sides.” .

Developing a small car is a challenge in 2023, with so many safety and fuel economy regulations, while keeping the price low. There are also huge packaging limitations, although this is less of an issue for the ID.2 as it’s being developed from day one as a purely electric hatchback. For the Batur or a Chiron where bottom line price isn’t really a major concern, automakers have more freedom to use more advanced technology thanks to generous development budgets.

VW has an excellent track record when it comes to developing small cars. The Lupo, up!, the Polo and the Beetle come to mind, as well as the Gol subcompact for Latin America. With the ID2.all, the Wolfsburg-based brand is previewing an all-new electric supermini for 2025. It’s worth noting that a cheaper electric vehicle has already been announced and will slot in below the ID.2 at the end of this decade, with Skoda and SEAT/ Cupra equivalents in the pipeline.

On the subject of VW and hypercars, it’s worth noting that VW itself toyed with the idea by releasing the 1997 W12 Syncro, the 1998 W12 Roadster and the 2001 W12 Nardo. However, these mid-engine concepts unfortunately never made it to production.