Bahn storming: Germany’s industrial landscapes are still shaped by the automobile
The country’s big players are racing to stay ahead of the pack

Audi Q8, Ingolstadt
Audi’s Q8 concept exemplifies the Ingolstadt-based company’s next-generation luxury crossover. The backdrop is Audi’s new Academy building, opened as a training centre in Ingolstadt in 2015. As the brand’s traditional home, the city hosts around 40,000 workers and Audi’s largest factory (the second largest car plant in Europe), while the public face of the brand is the glass-walled Audi Forum museum. Buyers will soon be able to slip inside their very own Q8, which is due in showrooms in 2018. Sleeker than your average SUV, the model is the flag-bearer for Audi’s burgeoning electric-drive and autonomous technologies, alongside the dedicated all-electric e-tron model that the company hopes, will make it an EV class leader within a few years.
Audi Q8, on sale in 2018. For more information, visit the Audi website
BMW 530d xDrive, Munich
The swoops and curves of Coop Himmelb(l)au’s spectacular BMW Welt stand in stark contrast to the conservative simplicity of the new BMW 5 Series. That’s not to say that the 5 Series is prosaic. The model has a well-deserved reputation as the most aspirational choice for corporate types, mainly because BMW uses it as a showcase for all the interesting things you can do with a conventional car. The current model, codenamed G30, is the seventh generation of the car that ushered in BMW’s current nomenclature back in 1972. Today’s 530d xDrive is a rocketship for the ambitious executive, stuffed full of quasi-autonomous tech and the design confidence, inside and out, that BMW has made its own. Bavarian Motor Works doesn’t do things by halves – it’s one of the most avant-garde mass-market manufacturers in the world, as its architectural commissions testify.
BMW 530d xDrive. From £30,405, for more information, visit the BMW website
Porsche Panamera 4 E-Hybrid, Stuttgart
Although Porsche has five other facilities, including an R&D centre at Weissach and another major production hub in Leipzig, the historic association with Stuttgart makes it the brand’s spiritual home. Ferdinand Porsche began working in the city in the early 1930s, but the first true Porsche factory opened in Stuttgart’s northern Zuffenhausen district in 1952, on what is now called Porschestrasse. Today, the brick-built structure is hemmed in by relentless and ongoing expansion, including Delugan Meissl’s striking 2009 Porsche Museum (in the background). Porsche Panamera 4 E-Hybrid, Stuttgart The Panamera is now in its second generation, with the blunt edges of this big four-door sports saloon chiselled off to reveal something really rather handsome. Its low-slung bodywork hides a hybrid powertrain that allows for purely electric pottering as well as ferocious Autobahn storming. With an even swifter hybrid variant waiting in the wings, alongside the stretched ‘Executive’ version and a ‘shooting brake’-style estate, the Panamera has become one of the world’s most seductive saloons.
Porsche Panamera 4 E-Hybrid, from £79,715. For more information, visit the Porsche website
W Atlas, Wolfsburg
The chimneys of the Wolfsburg North power plant tower over a 5 sq km fiefdom dedicated entirely to the car. The Atlas illustrates just how far VW has come since its days of manufacturing a single model designed to suit all purposes. This ‘full-size’ SUV, 5m long and with seven seats, is pitched primarily at the all-important American and Chinese markets, and a hybrid version is in the offing. If long-term plans aren’t frustrated by political chicanery, VW’s aim is to lead the way in mass-market electric cars, sharing tech and expertise developed by sister companies Porsche and Audi.
VW Atlas, on sale summer 2017. For more information, visit the Volkswagen website
As originally featured in the April 2017 issue of Wallpaper* (W*217). Friend
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Jonathan Bell has written for Wallpaper* magazine since 1999, covering everything from architecture and transport design to books, tech and graphic design. He is now the magazine’s Transport and Technology Editor. Jonathan has written and edited 15 books, including Concept Car Design, 21st Century House, and The New Modern House. He is also the host of Wallpaper’s first podcast.
-
Brazilian designer Guilherme Wentz’s new collection creates sanctuary at home
His stunning new pocket collection of home accessories was designed for a market of one, but luckily, the covetable Objects for Silence are available to all
By Scott Mitchem Published
-
Van Cleef & Arpels light up London with the Dance Reflections festival
Van Cleef & Arpels are celebrating their ties with the world of choreography with the second edition of the Dance Reflections festival across London
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Pretty on the inside: the BMW X3 M50 is a characterful but confrontational SUV
The flagship of the fourth generation X3 range, the M50 xDrive model showcases BMW’s skills at making SUVs that are delightful to drive
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
BMW celebrates half a century of its pioneering Art Car project with exhibitions and more
We present a portfolio of the artists who have contributed to 50 years of BMW Art Cars, including Andy Warhol, John Baldessari, Jenny Holzer and David Hockney
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
EV start-up Halcyon transforms a classic 1970s Rolls-Royce into a smooth electric operator
This 1978 Rolls-Royce Corniche is the first fruit of a new electric restomod company, the Surrey-based Halcyon
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Peruse the new BMW Group Archive to explore the evolution of BMW design over the decades
For lovers of the marque, BMW’s commitment to online archiving is second to none. The latest website from the Bavarian manufacturer is this extensive visual catalogue of 80 years’ worth of BMW design
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
China’s Leapmotor pounces on the European car market with its T03 city car and C10 SUV
Leapmotor’s tiny electric city car could be just the tonic for cramped urban Europe. We sample the T03 and its new sibling, the fully loaded C10 SUV, to see if the company’s value proposition stacks up
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
The top 10 concept cars of 2024, as selected by Wallpaper’s Transport Editor
We round up our favourite forays into futuristic design with this collection of concepts and design studies showcasing the transport of tomorrow
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Michael Mauer on two decades at the helm of Porsche’s design
Porsche’s signature style has diversified in recent years, thanks to the design leadership of Michael Mauer. We caught up with him to reflect on his 20 years in the hot seat
By Rory FH Smith Published
-
Team Ikuzawa brings the art of Daniel Arsham to motorsport
Creative director Mai Ikuzawa has overseen a new capsule clothing collection, a collaboration with artist Daniel Arsham that also honours her racing driver father Tetsu Ikuzawa
By Josh Sims Published
-
Audi launches AUDI, a China-only sub-brand, with a handsome new EV concept
The AUDI E previews a new range of China-specific electric vehicles from the German carmaker’s new local sub-brand
By Jonathan Bell Published