A DRIVE INTO THE FUTURE

Disruptions such as electrification, autonomous driving and connected technologies will pave the way for luxury cars that will be more futuristic and cutting- edge than ever.

Electrification, autonomous driving and connected technologies will pave the way for luxury cars

IMAGINE A CAR THAT OFFERS YOU A comfortable flatbed to sleep, is silent as a church and unobtrusive as it doesn’t need a driver. Top it off with unmatched versatility that can transform the cabin into a living room, a theatre or business centre at the press of a button replete with a change of upholstery, lighting and furniture. A highly robotised machine that can munch miles by the hour at hyper speeds without much fuss, manoeuvre twisty roads or traffic jams on its own and offers you an invisible but friendly and efficient robot that doubles up as a chauffeur and assistant much like Jarvis of the Iron Man series. All that, without hurting the environment. That in a nutshell is the future of the luxury car.

The three-pronged disruption – electrification, driverless cars and connectivity that has engulfed the global automotive industry – is having its say on the luxury side of the business as well. Within a decade from now, cars meant for billionaires would be starkly different from today. Unlike the other segments, though, the evolution is likely to be more coherent and the cars that emerge from the shadows, more exciting. Lack of any restriction on a sticker price does have its merits.

MORE SPACE, LESS NOISE

Replacing the conventional internal combustion engine that has done its duty for over a century now, by a simplistic electric motor and battery pack would herald a new era of comfort and convenience. With the engine gone, the snout of the car can now be shorter, the wheels more spread out to the extreme corners of the vehicle enhancing the space inside. For the Bentleys and Rolls-Royces of the world that today house monstrous 8 to 12 cylinder engine blocks under the hood, this change would be dramatic. The cars in future would have much more space than before without any change in dimensions per se.

“Our outlook for the long term gets depicted by our research car F 015 Luxury in Motion,” says Roland Folger, Managing Director and CEO, Mercedes-Benz India. In the F 015, the proportions of the occupant cell are set considerably farther forward. The front and rear overhangs are reduced to a minimum. This layout enables an extremely long wheelbase, leading to maximum interior space.”

The extra space would mean

more comfort and an overhaul of the seats that we are used to in cars today. Another big change would be the absence of any engine noise. A lot of research and development in luxury cars today is concentrated on how to make the cabin silent and insulated from the sounds of the outside world. The biggest challenge was the noise emanating from big engines themselves. With that gone, the luxury car of the future will be a sea of calmness.

DRIVERLESS, POWER PACKED Mass market car companies like Renault Nissan may lead the charge in electrification but the rise of Tesla has shown why it need not be a boring thing. In fact, an electric motor by design offers higher torque than a conventional engine.

A Croatian firm, Rimac Automobili, turned heads earlier this year when it showcased its offering C Two. Rimac makes some of the most powerful electric cars in the world and the C Two with its 120 KWh battery makes 1914 horsepower giving it a top speed of 412 kph and a range of 400 miles. It can also accelerate from 0-100 kmph at 1.85 seconds. To put it in context, Bugatti Chiron – the most powerful and fastest car today – does the same in 2.4 seconds.

The other big innovation would be in autonomous driving. Currently, car companies are working on a variety of driverless modes largely on partial assistance where the car can either park by itself or manage lane driving on freeways and manoeuvring gridlocked traffic in cities. The next era would be where the chauffeur would become completely redundant and the car could drive by itself on any terrain guided by a matrix of radars and cameras. Gone will be the steering wheel, pedals and in effect the driver’s seat itself.

The chauffeur of the Rolls-Royce of the future demonstrated in its 103EX is a virtual assistant that is imbued with its own artificial intelligence. It would work intuitively to advise owners on itinerar-