After a lot of trips and news from all over the world, we close 2025’s chapter in Europe with a super long interview with Martin Wollmer, head of innovation at Forvia Hella, and Michael Hamm’s visit to Fraunhofer ILT in Aachen.
We have worked hard during the last 3 weeks with the team to bring together the tentative docket for the DVN Munich event on 4 – 5 February at Olimpiapark. We will start the day before, on the 3rd, with deep-dive sessions – one about sustainability, and one on external displays. For the first time, we will devote a session to illuminated panels, which have really come into the market this year in Europe on cars like the Renault 4, Mercedes CLA and GLC, BMW iX3, DS4, Opel Grandland, and others.
And over the last six months’ time, we’ve cooked up something new and exciting! With the support of Pforzheim university, we’ve organised a design contest to (re)think what automotive design will be in 2035. I contacted a variety of schools and some designers I know about it, and now here we are: six designs schools from Germany, France, Sweden, Spain, and China joined, and we received 32 student proposals. Our jury have selected one student per school for the final presentation during the Munich event; each student will pitch their ideas in front of all of us.
I read all 32 proposals, and there are super nice and cool ideas that really bring new air into our room. It will be intriguing to interact with them!
To select the student proposals, I tried to define a diverse jury, with participation from transportation designers, industrial designers, car maker engineers, and set maker engineers. All have accepted and are very enthusiastic about the results.
In today’s DVNewsletter we bring you interviews with two jurists, Thomas Ingenlath and Cesar Muntada, wherein you’ll learn their views about the design contest and what they are expecting.
Again, thank you for your support during this whole year 2025. I wish you the happiest of holiday seasons. 2026 is now coming and I wish you all the best for this new year. See you for the next DVNewsletter on 6 January!
Sincerely yours,
