(from EDAG Press Release)  At this year’s Motor Show in Geneva, EDAG Engineering + Design AG will be exhibiting two exceptional vehicle concepts which will reinforce the company’s reputation as an innovative and creative partner to the international motor vehicle industry. As a world premiere, the globally active company will be presenting the “EDAG Biwak”, a sensational derivative concept based on the New Beetle.

From styling through to testing various manufacturing scenarios, it took the EDAG stylists and engineers just three months to complete implementation of the concept car, and prepare it as a business case. With the hard top version of the Pontiac Solstice, first presented at the Detroit Motor Show in January 2006, EDAG – global engineering partner to the automotive industry – is exhibiting yet another practicable concept.

The “EDAG Biwak” – a Derivative Concept with the Potential of a Volume Vehicle

For this new EDAG concept car, the classic, half-rounded beetle shape has been converted into an estate silhouette, creating extra room for various new professional and leisure applications. As well as offering the advantages of a marked increase in storage space and greater headroom for the back seat passengers, the the SUV light concept also provides more ground clearance, to enable the driver to take the vehicle off the road or race track. Practical and stylish: the rear door provides easy access to the luggage section. The new body design drawn up by the EDAG stylists and developed by the EDAG engineers has the potential for use in vehicles for volume production. The EDAG Biwak would be the ideal second car for a family, though it could just as easily prove popular as a stylish leisure vehicle for surfers or divers, or even do service as a delivery truck for crafts or tradesmen. The concept combines a multitude of requirements, making it attractive to a broad spectrum of customers. To demonstrate the industrial feasibility of the concept, EDAG’s development and production specialists have also worked out different manufacturing concepts for various quantities.

Trim + Colour as Marketing Instruments

Geneva Version: “Patina instead of High Gloss”:  To increase its appeal to the intended target groups, the EDAG design team have created a sophisticated concept for individual equipment and features. Johannes Barckmann explains: “By utilising clearly worked out colour and trim concepts, we can adapt the look of the EDAG Biwak to appeal to the various target groups – high gloss finish and chrome elements for the bank clerk; crinkle finish, steel rims and denim for the young rebel. By offering numerous alternative versions of the extras, we can satisfy the customers’ constant calls for individualisation.”

With the version for the Geneva Show, EDAG deliberately set out to produce a provocative exterior – the EDAG Biwak look was inspired by the spirit of the grunge movement of the early 1990s, and takes up a successful trend in the fashion branch.

A matt crinkle finish on the ourtside combined with natural leather and denim on the inside create a direct counterpoint to the usual high-gloss look of other new cars.

The crinkle finish lends the EDAG Biwak a used look, which brings the direct utility value of the vehicle very much to the fore. “We are giving the customer the freedom to make full use of the vehicle, dispelling his or her worries about that first, inevitable scratch in the paintwork,” is how Johannes accounts for the provocative trim colour concept.

In this case, the motto “patina instead of high gloss” is directed at a target group intent upon breaking with convention. Just one example of how colour and trim can be employed as marketing instruments.