Automotive designers and engineers spend endless hours crafting the body panels that make up a car to provide the desired look along with the relevant aerodynamic and engineering qualities. All this so that the final product is attractive to the eye, complying with all the required regulations and returning solid consumption figures. But recent focus on efficiency has brought new trends.
And no, we are not talking about the big screens or the designative nomenclature of the models in size XXL. Nor of that tendency towards corners and angular creases everywhere that are present even in flyers. We talk about the wheels, specifically rims. Over the past 20 years, the market’s obsession with promoting an image of sportiness has resulted in wheel spokes being made as thin as possible, both to reduce weight and to give us a clearer view of the brake calipers. .
But recently we’ve seen a greater emphasis on fuller spokes that reduce drag (or at least appear to do so). While high-performance models, such as those signed by BMW M, still proudly sport expensive forged wheels, it is more likely that the electric versions of each of the brands they look with rims in the shape of a scratched disc. Creating this shape for the wheels is motivated to help them squeeze as many miles as possible from each kWh of battery power.
The problem is that scratch disc design rims can make a car look… A bit heavy, or just a bit boring. That could be why we’re seeing a new wave of rim designs for electric models that feature thick, flat spokes but decorated with bold embossing. The new Rolls-Royce Specter, the company’s first electric, has striped design wheels and is far from the only one. The Cadillac Celestiq also enjoys similar styling, which is not surprising.
Although the American model is a new chapter for the company that promised to be “the standard of the world”, many of its details, even on those wheels, are inspired by interwar and mid-century design trends. That period turned out to be a golden age for both brands, and an incredibly glamorous period (for some of us at least) for automotive design. That’s why both brands, which focus on opulent luxury, would like us to think with a certain degree of nostalgia.
But Rolls-Royce and Cadillac are not the only ones promoting this new style, they are not even the first to do so. The prototype The Next Day from the Sino-Swedish manufacturer Lynk & Co. He showed a set of scratched disc tires divided into “seven spokes”. Audi try to do the same in the Q4 e-tron, and Renault in the new Mégane E-Tech. peugeot employs a similar motif on the rims of its e-208, while the 408 (just below these lines) takes striped foil and other decoration to a cutting-edge level that’s entirely new.
