JLR wins big at Automotive Interiors Expo Awards 2017

The winners of the Automotive Interiors Expo Awards 2017 have been presented in Stuttgart. The awards, hosted at Automotive Interiors Expo 2017, showcase all aspects of excellence in automotive interior technology, design and innovation, honouring the world’s finest designers, innovations, concepts and products in automotive interiors. 

The Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) team was the success story of the awards with Gerry McGovern, head of design at Land Rover awarded the top prize, ‘Interior Designer of the Year’.  McGovern was chosen over a tough field of nominees, including 2016’s winner, Hartmut Sinkwitz, Mercedes-Benz’s head of interior design, and industry rivals at Volkswagen, Renault, Porsche and Alfa Romeo.

The 18-strong judging panel, boasting some of the world’s leading automotive and design journalists including Autocar India’s Hormazd Sorabjee and the Autocar Show’s Renuka Kirpalani, awarded the title to McGovern for his work behind the design and development for the new Land Rover Discovery and Range Rover Velar.

Commenting on the award, Gerry McGovern, Land Rover’s chief design officer, said: “Being recognised by Automotive Interiors is a great honour and reflects the hard work and dedication of our teams of designers and engineers. The new Discovery redefines the large SUV sector and our teams have revolutionised the Discovery DNA to create a highly desirable, extremely versatile and hugely capable premium SUV. The Range Rover Velar’s interior is a calming sanctuary combining exceptional space with authentic materials and finishes, precise execution and beautiful details such as hidden-until-lit controls.”

Intelligent Seat Fold technology allows the two rear rows of seats to be fully reconfigured in as little as 14 seconds via the InControl Remote app downloaded on any iOS or Android operating system.  

It was seating innovation that saw Land Rover pick up its second award of the night, winning ‘Interior Innovation of the Year – Production Vehicle’ for the Intelligent Seat Fold Tech, as found in the new Discovery. Technology featured in the Discovery 5 was nominated twice in this category, with the InControl Touch Pro infotainment system also getting a nod. But it was the pioneering seating design that won, where second and third seating rows are able to be easily reconfigured via either a panel at the rear of the vehicle, the central touchscreen, or remotely via a smartphone app.

The third and final win for JLR came in the refined shape of the Jaguar I-Pace, picking up the ‘Interior Design of the Year – Concept Vehicle’ crown. Collected by Sandy Boyes, JLR chief designer for interiors and advanced design, the I-Pace snatched victory from a field including the Mercedes-Benz Generation EQ, Renault Trezor, Chrysler Portal Vision, Lexus UX Concept, Citroen Cxperience and the Volkswagen I.D.

Harman bags ‘Supplier of the Year’ award
The much-coveted Supplier of the Year award saw last year’s winner, Harman, pick up the prize again, after another record high revenue return and the creation of its intelligent cockpit advanced customizable tech. The company saw off tough competition from Faurecia, Adient and Yangfeng Automotive Interiors.

The Concept Interior Innovation of the Year category is a chance for designers to be recognised for developing the technologies of tomorrow. This year, it was BMW who picked up the prize for the BMW HoloActive Touch system. The technology sees a free-floating virtual reality display projected in the area above the centre console, operated by finger movements with ultrasound providing tactile confirmation that the task is compete.

The final category, Interior Design of the Year - Production Vehicle was awarded to Porsche’s Panamera, beating off competition from some of the past year’s most prominent cars including Nissan Micra, Honda Civic, Toyota C-HR and Citroen C3, along with the new Land Rover Discovery.

Judges rewarded Porsche for its re-interpretation of interiors in a future-oriented way, as found in the all-new Panamera, where features include black panel surfaces and interactive displays which combine the clear visuality and intuitive user interfaces of smartphones, with the practical requirements for controlling the car.