Concept Cars – A Fearful Asymmetry

On the surface; we all love symmetry – pretty faces, sunflowers, social justice and bell distribution graphs. And anything that doesn’t conform to a mirror image of itself gets called ‘imperfect’.

Yet, if you look at just about anything for longer than a couple of seconds, you’ll quickly see imperfection is actually more common than not; Marilyn Monroe has a beauty spot, virtually none of the nectarines off my tree have equal sides – and the law is an ass.

Plus, we don’t actually thirst after symmetry quite as much as we think we do neither – as imagine if the second half of a rugby match exactly mirrored the first… what would be the point of watching it? Especially if our team is losing the first forty (as the Warriors often do) – we’ve seen this nightmare already!

So our apparent love for symmetry doesn’t really stack up – it’s lip service; it’s a politician’s promise. Yet there still remains a hardcore symmetry holdout in most of our minds, and that’s to do with vehicle body shape. As I’ve noticed even the most tolerant and open-minded people I know point and laugh at the Nissan Cube for its obvious asymmetrical design. Which is crazy! Do you love symmetry so much you want absolutely everything to look exactly the same?

Concept Cars

It’s an attitude that has also forced automakers to use concept cars for their asymmetrical design urges. For, unlike rock bands, for whom devising a concept album can be the kind of risk that alienates fans or turns you into a laughing stock – Kid A or Metal Machine Music anyone? – carmakers are virtually EXPECTED to push the boat way the heck out when it comes to concept cars. Otherwise, why bother making them at all? So, don’t hassle us about our freaky design, man – it’s a CONCEPT car!

One such automaker who has dared to challenge the symmetrical norm is DS Automobiles, formerly an offshoot of French carmaker Citroen but now made in China. In a nod to their origin, DS have said; vive la difference and made the proudly asymmetric X E-tense to spite all the balance clones out there.

DS X E-tense

The result is seriously asymmetrical carbon-fibre chassis with one side featuring a roofless driver’s cockpit while on the other side is a “soothing cocoon,” or a wider, covered compartment where you can relax and let the autonomous computers take over the driving for you. In the universally accepted driver-free future, of course.

And, being a futuristic concept car, it naturally features a fully electric engine – actually, make that two – one for the race track and one for the road. The road version maxes out at 400kW, while the track version pumps out a juicy 1000kW. The idea here being that driving in the future means you should be able to have your cake and eat it too. Either chill out in the cabin and allow your car to drive itself – or you can take the wheel in the cockpit and go absolutely ape with the wind in your hair. Two completely different modes of driving that are equally important and relevant to our lives at different times – yet which do not mirror one another whatsoever.

By Jove, you know what? I think DS Automobiles have created perfection in driving, all they have to do now is convince 99.9% of the global population that asymmetry is the way to go.