Let Your Car Grow With Wings – Interview With the Head of Design at XPENG AEROHT

The flying car is a brand new industry, with no reference point and no benchmark to study. From sketches to final full-scale A class hard models passing by scale models, digital models, and virtual reality visualization to make sure that the product is perfect. The path to innovation is not as easy as it seems.

Design studio members

The idea to create XPENG AEROHT Design Studio was initiated by Wang Tan, Vice President of the firm. In late 2020, the design studio only had three members: a designer Rafik Ferrag, a digital modeler Wang Bin, and a studio engineer Shao Shuai. Ever since the design studio has been hiring and seeking new talents. Today the team has more than 17 members. All come from different horizons, share different experiences, and previously worked in prestigious companies such as Lamborghini, Honda, and Citroën. China, Korea, France, India, Japan, and more to come are cultures that we can breathe, feel and experience in the office on a daily basis. 

CMF, component, and interior designers at work

“Design is like magic. It is probably the most powerful tool to get people to be in a good mood, a beautiful thing that makes everyone feel like kids and undeniably the ultimate way to communicate love around us.” says Rafik Ferrag, head of design at XPENG AEROHT. Here we are going to have an interview with him to reveal the design stories behind the products.

Head of design - Rafik Ferrag with XPENG P7

Rafik Ferrag is a French designer. From a young age, he developed a talent for drawing and designing which was recognized among his peers. He studied for 2 years at IUT of Valenciennes, then dropped out to follow his passion for design and entered the famous school of Design, Creapole, located in Paris.

After a short experience in Citroën in France, he decided to fly over to Japan and spent 5 years with Honda working on different concepts and production projects, patenting Honda's new mobility concept in 2016. In August 2017, he joined XPENG MOTORS where he led the design to give birth to XPENG P7 and XPENG P5 to market. Now he is the design director at XPENG AEROHT, leading the design team to shape the future of 3D mobility together.

XPENG P5 & P7 sketches

Q1: When you were a child, were you already interested in drawing? Did it occur to you that you wanted to be a designer?

Rafik: I have always wanted to become a designer. I remember, the 6-year-old me, wanting the toys that I couldn’t have and starting drawing them to the point where, in my eyes, they become real. I can recall that moment perfectly, looking at my drawing and thinking that it was so unfair to be able to draw it but not have it. A few decades later, I will end up doing that professionally! I draw things and they come to life vitalizing the cityscapes of the world.

Behind the scenes, the walls of advertisement and social media making it look easy, lies a whole different reality: A world where day-to-day seriousness, constant exploration, assiduous labor, and countless hours of work made my dream come to life.

Q2: What is a good design?

Rafik: I believe that design, truly, is a commitment to the positivity of mankind. It is very important for us, designers, to take full responsibility and awareness to carefully imagine and shape our environment. Depending on what is in front of people’s eyes, their mood, feelings, attitude, and outlook will shift. Looking out the window in a dark forest under the rain will make you feel different than if you were looking at a splendid beach under a sunny blue sky. Thus, whatever is surrounding us affects who we are and who we become. In this way, good design should always help us be the best version of ourselves. Therefore, as I like to say, designers must always in this specific order “dream it, love it, do it.” Good design must make people happy.

XPENG X2 early sketches

Q3: What's the difference between styling and design? 

Rafik: When it comes to the personal transportation industry, styling and design are closely related. However, it is crucial to acknowledge the fact that they still remain two different notions to approach carefully.

Indeed, styling is emotional and focuses on customers’ feelings that are always subjective and in general evolving with time. Design is more rational and objective, it’s focused on solving a specific problem, bringing the perfect answer in terms of functionality and ergonomics to a specific end-user with a close eye on the budget and feasibility. If any design project is not tackled with this idea in mind, the directions can be easily confusing and misleading.

XPENG X2 interior sketch

XPENG X2 full size clay model

Q4: Where do you find inspiration? 

Rafik: Dream it, love it, do it. We often forget the “dream it” and “love it” part. A well-established plan (objectives, milestones, budget, roles & responsibilities etc.) is a key to monitor the “known and predictable” project aspects. The key to success, is to accept the “unplanned and unknown” factors as standard deviations: without, creativity will be limited to a tiny scope of practice that often leads to an expected result and therefore quite a conventional design.

One of my goals as a design leader is to constantly plan the unplanned, and seek the happy accidents to be able to provide exhilarating, consequential, radical ideas and designs for the global market.

Q5: What do you think of the flying car industry?

Rafik: What an era! EV is the opportunity to turn a new page if not open a new book. The flying car is that new book. The transition to electrification and globalization is such a playground for designers to express and materialize their dreams.

EVs are to cars what smartphones are to landlines. It’s not just a new mode of propulsion powered by batteries, it’s a new concept that can be referred to as “Smart Transportation”. We are heading towards a world where autonomous driving systems have become the norm: a paradigm shift is needed and inevitable.

I am proud, being in XPENG AEROHT, to be one of the first to open a whole new world of possibilities for the passengers.

Sketching the 6th-generation flying car

Q6: What do you think of the products in the future?

Rafik: Doors are wide open to a vast empty room waiting to be filled with new ideas! My take in terms of styling is to find the perfect harmony between honest, futuristic, pure, full of volume body yet with an emotional and confident dynamic gesture.

I believe that design and stylistic vision should combine with strong, audacious, unique graphics gently applied in a natural way and always in adequacy with the core values of the company.