Future pick-ups will feature versatility, creature comforts

GREENVILLE, S.C. — Versatility and creature comforts were among the common features in the winning future pick-up truck designs in the 2018 Michelin Challenge Design.

The 2018 challenge — "Mobility/Utility/Flexibility — Designing for the Next Global Revolution" — attracted more than 1,200 entries from individuals and teams of designers from 73 nations. The jury selected three winning designs, seven additional finalists and eight honorable mentions from among the entries.

According to Thom Roach, vice president of original-equipment marketing for Michelin North America Inc., jurors were intrigued by how designers saw the opportunity for "open-bedded" vehicles to meet the needs in their respective countries or regions.

"Given the surprising growth in SUV and CUV categories around the world, it will be very interesting to see if pick-ups and open-bedded vehicles also grow well beyond the traditional markets," he said noting that companies such as Mercedes Benz, Hyundai or Peugeot/Citroen have entered this market or announced their intention to do so.

Jury Chairman Stewart Reed of Art Center College of Design in California, said the consensus among the jurors was that there's a "massive future for what we call the pick-up truck," especially considering that this vehicle type is "viewed a little differently all over the world…."

Josh Sandrock, a student at San Diego's Transportation Design at Art Center College of Design, was the overall winner for his "Volkswagen Type 10 Pick Up," which proposes the use of a modular pod system that allows the truck bed to be changed meet the needs of its desired use, from a standard truck bed to an enclosed freight style cargo container.

Second place went to a trio of Ohioans — Daniel Yee of Cleveland, Marcus Hamilton of Columbus, and Claire Keys Pytlik of Cincinnati — for their "Michelin ToolBOX Pick Up," which offers flexibility in the form of a separate but fusible design that mates a tall, cube-shaped cab with a skiff approximately the size of a queen mattress meant to hold a metric ton of weight.

Third place went to Vinod Pakalapati and Surya Konijeti of Pune, India for "X Pick," described as a modular utility vehicle designed to be equally adept at city deliveries and in working in undeveloped off-road terrain.

Most of the winning design teams took the additional step of proposing tire designs as well.

The ToolBOX Pick Up team, for example, proposes a wheel with hydraulic-driven spokes that could either enlarge the diameter of the "highly elastic" rubber tires or turn the circular tire into a teardrop-shaped track for extra traction in rough terrain.

Over the 17 years of the Michelin Challenge Design, jurors have judged more than 12,000 entries from 126 countries.

Other finalists of the 2018 Michelin Challenge Design are:

• Benoit Aubertin of Ciboure, France, and Antoine Alaurent of Saucats, France, for design entry "Woodcutter Climber";

• Hawon Jang of Ansan, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, for "Mini Square";

• Wojciech Jurkowski of Krakow, Poland, for "Renault Subtil";

• Yixing Liao, Wei Wang, Hangbin Xu, Kang Zeng, Daiqi Fan and Jiali Han of Hangzhou, China, for "UFORCE 16";

• Alfred Munkenbeck of London, England, for "Sherpa";

• Li Pengliang and Sun Hongyang of Zhengzhou, China, for "Oasis"; and

• Thomas Weger of Edgerton, Wis., for "MSW Pick Up."

Representatives from the first-, second- and third-place winners will be guests of Michelin at the 2018 "Movin'On by Michelin," the global sustainable mobility event to be held in Montreal, May 30-June 1, where their winning designs will be displayed and they will participate in a private portfolio review with members of the jury and leading designers.

All finalists and members of each winning team are invited to join an exclusive online community restricted to Michelin Challenge Design winners and jurors.