Automotive

Opel's GT X Experimental concept envisages a "visual detox" for cars of the 2020s

Opel's GT X Experimental concept envisages a "visual detox" for cars of the 2020s
Opel's GT X Experimental concept is a harbinger of Opel's upcoming design language
Opel's GT X Experimental concept is a harbinger of Opel's upcoming design language
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Opel GT X Experimental concept: envisages electric motoring in the mid-2020s
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Opel GT X Experimental concept: envisages electric motoring in the mid-2020s
Opel's GT X Experimental concept is a harbinger of Opel's upcoming design language
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Opel's GT X Experimental concept is a harbinger of Opel's upcoming design language
Opel GT X Experimental concept: funky wheels and hidden shut lines
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Opel GT X Experimental concept: funky wheels and hidden shut lines
Opel GT X Experimental concept: clearly posed on a stage, with wheels motion-blurred to look like it's moving for some reason
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Opel GT X Experimental concept: clearly posed on a stage, with wheels motion-blurred to look like it's moving for some reason
Opel CEO Michael Lohscheller with the GT X Experimental concept
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Opel CEO Michael Lohscheller with the GT X Experimental concept
Opel GT X Experimental concept: coach doors make for easy access
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Opel GT X Experimental concept: coach doors make for easy access
Opel GT X Experimental concept: ultra-clean interior
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Opel GT X Experimental concept: ultra-clean interior
Opel GT X Experimental concept: single piece digital dash
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Opel GT X Experimental concept: single piece digital dash
Opel GT X Experimental concept: driver's seat is a stark old cockpit
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Opel GT X Experimental concept: driver's seat is a stark old cockpit
Tasteful bokeh blur gives the impression she's really there
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Tasteful bokeh blur gives the impression she's really there
Opel GT X Experimental concept: dress to match your car
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Opel GT X Experimental concept: dress to match your car
Opel GT X Experimental concept: rear section
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Opel GT X Experimental concept: rear section
Opel GT X Experimental concept: nice-looking seat cover materials
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Opel GT X Experimental concept: nice-looking seat cover materials
Opel GT X Experimental concept: minimalist design
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Opel GT X Experimental concept: minimalist design
Opel GT X Experimental concept: highly detailed 17-inch wheels
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Opel GT X Experimental concept: highly detailed 17-inch wheels
Opel CEO Michael Lohscheller "unveils" the GT X Experimental in a heavily photoshopped image
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Opel CEO Michael Lohscheller "unveils" the GT X Experimental in a heavily photoshopped image
View gallery - 16 images

Opel has sealed its commitment to electrifying every model in its range by 2024 with a funky concept car signposting what the company believes its design language will be moving forward. The GT X Experimental is a Level 3 autonomous car with some very cool "visual detox" design touches, including "floating" seats.

The fact that this is a compact SUV is no mistake; Opel believes 40 percent of its market in the early 2020s will be SUVs. The company has also decided to offer a fully electric variant of every model it makes by 2024, so the GT X Experimental is a brand concept showing us what Opel's designers are aspiring towards.

One of the design team's key concepts here is what it calls "visual detox," which is defined as "purity of design by removing all unnecessary design elements." Thus, the overall slick smoothness of the exterior, with tedious details like door handles and side mirrors completely absent, and shutlines kept to a minimum, or hidden away using touches like the yellow stripe that rises over the side windows and conceals the point where the door panels join the roof.

Opel GT X Experimental concept: envisages electric motoring in the mid-2020s
Opel GT X Experimental concept: envisages electric motoring in the mid-2020s

There's very little ugly and mechanical to look at here; even the undertray seems so smooth and clean you could flip the car on its back and eat your dinner off it.

The wheels, on the other hand, are 17-inchers with big, colorful rims and watch strap-thin tires. They're made to look bigger than life with the use of protruding arches, and we're not sure their extreme level of finicky detailing fits with the "removal of all unnecessary design elements" ethos. They do look cool, though.

Opening the car up, the coach-style doors are a nice surprise, offering untrammeled access to an extremely clean interior. Like, almost too clean. There's no mistaking this as anything but an electric; the dash and cabin are so minimal they look like modern interior design.

Opel GT X Experimental concept: coach doors make for easy access
Opel GT X Experimental concept: coach doors make for easy access

The seats float above the floor, attached only at hidden points on what you'd hope are some very strong supports. The visually detoxed floor beneath is illuminated by downlighting, which will come in handy when your kids in the back seats visually re-tox the car by dropping apple cores and cheese wrappers all over the floor.

The dash is a single wide screen panel, and there are side panels in the dash with displays for the cameras that replace the mirrors. Even the main rear vision mirror is gone from the front window, leaving a totally clean, panoramic sunroof and nothing but tinted glass to hide behind when the sun's in your eyes.

Opel GT X Experimental concept: ultra-clean interior
Opel GT X Experimental concept: ultra-clean interior

The battery is a 50-kWh pack featuring inductive charging, meaning you don't need to plug it in, and can just drive it onto a charging pad instead.

As for autonomy, Opel has chosen to make this a Level 3 autonomous concept, meaning it can drive itself in most conditions, but the driver has to keep both eyes on the road and be ready to intervene. This places it as a short- to mid-term concept, hence the lack of rotating seats and social spaces we can expect to see with higher levels of autonomy.

Are these images of a car that has actually been built? That's devilishly difficult to tell from the pictures. If these are real photos, they've been edited so brutally and comprehensively that they look fake. If they're fake, then why would Opel bother with images like the one below, which shows Opel CEO Michael Lohscheller unveiling the thing, and which metadata tells us has been edited and saved in Photoshop more than 20 times? It's all a bit icky.

Opel CEO Michael Lohscheller "unveils" the GT X Experimental in a heavily photoshopped image
Opel CEO Michael Lohscheller "unveils" the GT X Experimental in a heavily photoshopped image

Then there's the video below, which makes us think they've actually built the thing, and which points the way forward to a highly fashionable future where men wear orange lipstick.

Source: Opel

Opel GT X Experimental: Bold Vision of Opel’s Future

View gallery - 16 images
3 comments
3 comments
myale
It is perhaps starting to happen in this design but just curious as to why headlights are still on the outside as if cars go electric there is a big radiator space which is redundant that allows a major LED light show where you can arrange lighting to cover the same scope as the current placed units - and the corners can become much more part of the aerodynamics of a vehicle rather than having to encompass headlights
Terence Hawkes
The idea of a design “detox” is timely. If you look at the current designs of most SUVs today, they are festooned with useless extraneous phoney scoops, character lines, complicated grilles, bulges, creases, folds, and a proliferation of dashboard controls. We are in a sort of Roccocco period of design language. It is nice to see Opel setting the trend toward a cleanup. I like the idea of the floating seats. Cleaning the floor would be much easier. The complicated dirt catcher wheels don’t fit the detox theme and should be deleted. Nevertheless, a great first step.
Tom Lee Mullins
I think that is really neat looking. It is neat companies are going electric but I don't think the range and battery charging time and cost is at a point to where it can really compete with gas powered vehicles.
I think a fuel cell would increase the range of the vehicle plus give it faster charging time since the refueling time is shorter than charging the batteries.