Shiro Nakamura has an extremely long professional title. He is Nissan's Senior Vice President and Chief Creative Officer of Design and Brand Management. And with long titles come great responsibility. He overlooks a team that build's the company's new design, steering it in a smart and productive direction, while maintaining and creating new brand strategies for production. You might know some of his works, like the GT-R and 370Z (yeah, they're pretty good, right?) He joined Nissan back in 1999 and had previously spent 25 years working for Isuzu, so you might say he's a seasoned veteran. Nakamura took some time first thing in the morning of the first press day of the New York International Auto Show to walk us through the new 2015 Nissan Murano and the Sport Sedan Concept. Here's what he had to tell us:
What are the main things that you guys were able to carry over from the concept into the production model and what did you lose?
This car is a very important product. It's to show the coming new generation of the Nissan design. And then now that's going to be production, so its shows how we are building for design. Particularly, you see the front has a very iconic motion front and the side view has a very characteristic, waving, dynamic motion line. And the side window, it's with a floating roof.
How did the V-Motion design come about?
We have been using V-motion even before, but this is a stronger and even more enhanced expression. If you closely look at our Juke, it has V-motion. We want to make a stronger expression. And even the headlamp, this is clearly the same design. Dramatic is a good word. Dynamic and dramatic.
What were the most difficult parts of creating this new design?
I don’t think it was so difficult, because we have a very nice proportion and very good stance. The point of difficulty or challenge is that this is a Murano. It has to look like Murano, but it cannot be just a simple one step. We want to show we are more than one step ahead. So, this is the third generation. The first generation was a very strong impact for the market. And the second one could be sort of an evolution, it was not exactly a step ahead, maybe a 0.75 step or something. What we want from this one is much more than one step ahead. We don’t to change Murano. Murano should be Murano: very artistic, emotional, dynamic. And also, not only the exterior, but the interior as well. You see it's a very nice interior.
It's a pretty drastic change from the original Murano. What do you think still maintains the soul of this model?
I think you’re correct, this is not exactly keeping the design the same. Murano is sort of a moving sort of sculpture, and in some way dynamic and elegant. So, it's a new proposal to this kind of crossover. So always breaking the mode and I think that’s a Murano. So we pull that level.
If we go into the interior here, it's very open, kind of light and airy.
It's a new type of material, could be stone or marble. We are not imitating. We want to show a modern, new texture. It's kind of that artistic flavor everywhere.
With this Crossover market expanding everywhere and everyone coming up with different variations, what do you think sets this apart from all the other models?
We have Murano and Rogue and Juke and of course we have Qashqai. This one has a much more emotional, artistic side and more sportier design like the Juke. This car is a great conception.
Were there any difficulties in maintaining the functionality of the Crossover with this type of sculpted design?
I don’t think we sacrificed any functionality. This is very roomy. If nothing else, crossover has to be very functional. People are expecting utility. So, I think it's not difficult, but hard to combine the proper quality and emotional design. That's the challenge for this car.
The Murano is the first production car your new design language. How did you choose the Murano to launch that?
Murano is sort of an icon for design. So, Murano has to be a very fast car to show. It makes sense, because it's most design oriented.
What should we expect in the next few cars that you make?
The Sport Sedan is coming next year. In China next week, we have one concept car there. Thats also in the same family. At the moment, it's not planned to come to the US. And of course, another type of car is coming, not next year, but maybe two years after. I cannot say which one after this.
How close would you say the Sport Sedan Concept is to the production car?
It's a close concept to production, almost the same distance as how close the Murano was with its concept.
A big trend right now is the "four-door coupe." How did that demand factor into your new cars?
I mean, we have an Altima, a real Sedan, but this is on top of the Altima, so a coupish sedan makes sense. We have only one sedan in this segment. This kind of car always looks nicer than the normal sedan. I think it always has a nice proportion. It's aggressive, but sporty. I think it cannot be a main thing. It's less boring than the normal Sedan, but the expression of the design is much more pure, because of the balance of practicality and emotional expression. You cannot unbalance the practicality. Now, this one is a little bit less practical because of tighter space so it gives more design expression much more clearly.
What were some of the inspirations of previous Nissans that shaped this design language.
GTR. Maybe, you look at the cabin, the shape of the cabin and front bender treatment. That has the same character. It's a family. It looks different but the root is the same.
There are a lot of car companies will say that some of the designs are inspired by nature, as well. Where do we see that
Of course, we are always inspired by nature. I think nature means dynamic movement, like this kind of wave. And you see that the wave is a very nice form because it's natural and dynamic. But you can learn from the shape and nature and also animals and human beings. I think that the car is part of nature. Especially, the shape of the human body. Female body, man’s body, whichever. Anything you can find inspiration from nature because we are surrounded by nature. We are living with nature.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
I think we have very strong momentum for showing the continuity, the new evolution of Nissan design. But in Beijing, we will show this on Sunday. So it's not only the US. Many other products will follow this direction, so you will see much wider, broader range of the product. We have a clearer, new language for this run.
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