This story includes unofficial, independent illustrations created by Joonyoung Koo
Chinese electric-vehicle maker Nio continues to grow its impressive range of EVs and now has a well-rounded family of sedans, SUVs, and even an Estate available. But what could a truly futuristic and unique vehicle from Nio look like were it conceived as the ultimate autonomous flagship? It could look a little like this.
The car you’re looking at is called the Nio Eden and it has been conceived as a way to bring together humans, nature, and artificial intelligence. It was created by Joonyoung Koo for his master’s thesis at the Hochschule Pforzheim University in early 2022 just before he officially joined Nio as an Exterior Designer in September of the same year. It should get you very excited as to one direction that the future of the automotive industry could take.
“The project name ‘EDEN’ comes from the DNA of the brand NIO,” explains Koo. “NIO has 3 interesting features in its legacy. EVE, ADAM, and Clean Park. EVE is a concept car that shows the vision of the brand and ADAM is NIO’s supercomputing system. And the Clean Parks is a long-term project by NIO which is keeping some lands filled with untouched nature for saving mother earth.”
Read: Nio’s Third-Gen Battery Swap Stations Can Change A Battery In 3 Minutes
One of the first things you will notice about the Eden is just how much glass has been used in its design. The windscreen stretches right to the front axle and is joined seamlessly with the glass windows, roof panel, and glass rear decklid. The designer opted against using traditional doors and instead, the front and rear halves of the glass roof open up, allowing very easy ingress and egress from the car while also making a dramatic statement.
“When the vehicle parks and gets stationary, the chassis can get widened and the doors and roof slide forward and backward so the interior space exposes to the outer world without any disturbance so that passengers can be fully integrated with the environment,” Koo told us.
Other intriguing aspects of the car’s design include the thin LED headlights, the flared wheel arches, the black and silver wheels, and the curved LED taillight.
Given that the car has been designed to be fully autonomous, it’s fitting that the cabin is void of any traditional controls. Instead, it features two reclining lounge chairs, plenty of legroom, and a rounded bench seat on the other side of the interior. It looks extremely spacious and would be absolutely perfect for a long journey. Koo, a Nio designer, adds that the cabin has an advanced “metaverse controller.”
“The seats are in the shape of luxury lounge chairs with a metaverse controller, which switches the surrounding environment from the real world to the virtual world,” he told us. “The passengers can rotate this sphere-shape controller and intuitively control their own multiverse, which is visualized in the dramatically long and wide proportion of glass which covers the interior space and acts as a metaverse simulator.”
While we don’t expect to see Nio launch a vehicle like this anytime soon, it did recently unveil its sleek ET5 Estate. The new model is expected to arrive in Europe this coming June before then launching in China. It builds on the design of the ET5 sedan but makes it even more impressive thanks primarily to the sleek roof.
Thanks to Joonyoung Koo for sharing his work with us!
