If you look at most concept cars designed a quarter-century ago, they look dated, a product of their times. One exception is the Ford 021C, designed in 1999 by Marc Newson. Auto reseller L’art de L’automobile spotted it on display at this year’s Pebble Beach 17 Mile event:
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It looks as if it could’ve been unveiled at this year’s Tokyo Motor Show. By concentrating purely on form and simplicity, Newson has created something pretty darn timeless.
As for what he was going for, here’s how Newson described the design in ’99:
“Ask children to draw a car, and they’ll draw something like this, so in many ways the 021C is a familiar and comfortable object…. It doesn’t use many typical automotive design cues, and while it does incorporate some interesting technology, it’s not technology used simply for the sake of it.”
The 021C name, by the way, was meant to stand for “21st Century.”
I think if Ford rolled this out as a low-cost EV today, they’d sell like crazy, particularly in Europe and Japan.
Source: core77