Like boy bands in the 1990s, there’s another new Chinese automotive brand aiming to break out with its own distinctive look and feel. And that’s Lepas, a fashion-focused, luxurious brand from the Chery group.
Due to launch in Australia later this year with a range of vivid family-friendly SUVs, starting with the spacious L8 five-seat plug-in hybrid, Lepas is positioned above the mainstream Chery brand but alongside its other spin-off marques, Omoda and Jaecoo, with a more ‘elegant’ vibe.
Before then, and to get the low-down on Lepas, we had an exclusive chat with its chief designer, Ivan Dulanovic, a graduate of one of the most prestigious automotive design schools in the world, who has helped create some of the most desirable machines on the planet.
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First of all, what inspired you to become an automotive designer? Have you always loved cars?
Yes, I have always been interested in cars. Which is why I studied for a masters of transportation at Scuola Politecnica di Design in Milan, Italy, which is a very prominent school for automotive design.
During my studies, I had the pleasure to work very closely with Lamborghini, Audi and Italdesign, which was very important later on because, after I graduated, I joined Italdesign under Filippo Perini who was the guy behind the legendary Lamborghini Aventador and Huracan.
During my time at Italdesign, I worked on the Nissan GT-R by Italdesign, and the very exclusive Zerouno, as well as a couple of projects with Lamborghini, and a collaboration with Volkswagen on the Transporter.
So, I had the pleasure to learn a lot of tricks in passionate Italian car design from him. And I think that’s very important today, because we’re in this day and time where eclecticism, I believe, is very important.
Later, and before coming to China, I work with Hongqi on the H9 executive car.
Now, what I would like to do is involve and mix the passionate culture of Italy with the very efficient Chinese way to create a very emotional and successful car.
As a designer, what do you start with – a product brief or your own sketches and ideas?
One of my favourite slides that I always like to show is the quick doodles that I used to transform the stylised part into a car.
As a designer, I always like to just take the pencil and sketch and try to figure it out, which is very traditional in the European way of thinking.
That’s how I learned it from most of the Italian designers is just let your imagination go; Don’t worry about anything, just do a couple of hundreds of sketches and see what comes out. That’s how we start free form.
How much understanding of engineering does a designer require, as you obviously have to integrate mechanical components, hard points, etc –or does that compromise come later in the process?
I think engineering is extremely important. Design is also extremely important. And I believe that what is necessary is an excellent collaboration between engineers and designers.
That’s something I’m always striving to achieve between my colleagues and the engineers, because at the end of the road what matters most is the quality of the car and how it looks overall. That’s where it is – the relationship between these two teams.
So yeah, in short, it’s very important for a designer to understand the engineering of the car.
While Lepas doesn’t yet have a dedicated electric vehicle, in general do EVs provide more freedom for designers?
Yes, we have a new energy platform which will allow more freedom, and we’re working on that. So, in the near future, I’m sure we will have nice things to show to all of you.
When did you join the Chery Group?
I joined two years ago. Before that, I was with Great Wall and now I’m very happy to share all the experiences and stories with Lepas – it’s been great.
What has surprised you most about the Chinese automotive industry since you’ve been there?
I’ve discovered how brave they are, how efficient it is to create the car in such a short amount of time, and making it a successful project.
You know, having very good sales, good quality and, most importantly, at the lower price, that’s all possible. I wanted to come here and to see it with my own eyes. So, I’m very happy that I made this decision.
We’re now seeing a lot of evolution – rather than imitation – in the design languages coming from China. Do you think that is a sign of confidence?
Yeah, this is an interesting topic. But to keep it short, I would say that, yes, now we are seeing designs that are bold and confident.
But also you have to understand that China – unlike Italy, unlike France, unlike the UK – they don’t have 120 years of experience in the automotive industry. So, they need to create some kind of starting point.
They need to spend some time creating the pedigree, right; something that France and Italy, they have this for a long time.
So, this is just a natural process. And as we are patient, and as we create more projects, this will see China create its own DNA, which is just getting stronger year by year.
If you look at porcelain as a product of China. Well, I think this is a very important aspect of the culture, because of its natural philosophy and the natural energy. So, we try to use porcelain as a reference, because everybody recognises porcelain as a luxurious product everywhere around the world, but it originates from China.
So, this is one way for us to take inspiration from another, like Western cultures, but also using porcelain and combining all this knowledge.
That’s why I mentioned the eclecticism before. I think that’s a good way for the modern design to approach.
China definitely has a lot of design heritage that can be used in this way.
More specifically on Lepas, the brand that you’re in charge of design for, what makes it distinct from the rest of the group?
The Lepas brand was created with the pursuit of beauty, and its keywords are Drive Your Elegance. Or, in other words, as we like to say it, to Grace Life with Brilliance.
So, our core audience is the group of people with a sense of elegance, style and fashion.
To achieve this, we believe that nature is simply the best designer in the world. So, we explore the nature of beauty, pursuing elegant forms and design cars that satisfy users’ aesthetic needs.
And then in the process of creating this beauty, we use precise artistic techniques to build a harmonious unity of art and emotion.
And finally, we believe every creation should also have a spirit. And we are treating the design of an automobile as creating a spiritual life and giving it ultimately the life-like vitality.
All those values, when combined, bring us to the purest inspiration for the Lepas brand, which is the leopard, the perfect embodiment of power in nature.
And so, we explore the nature of this wonderful animal, and in the process of pursuing the unity of art and emotion, we form the design identity of Lepas, which demonstrates flexibility, elegance and glamour.
How important is having a vibrant colour palette in defining Lepas?
That’s a good question, because Chery has a lot of brands, and we always try to give them separate identities.
In the future, this will be a lot easier because now we have strategies on how to do that.
With Lepas, for example, coming from my own perception, the Lepas is the elegant, smooth guy – very elegant and charming – where Tiggo is more muscular and more edgy, more robust. And then there’s also Jaecoo, which is more perpendicular, more sober.
This will be even more evident to you next year, or the coming year. So, we are working on creating the very visual difference between all these brands.
Traditionally for European brands, elegance means muted tones like silvers and blacks. Do you think being colourful will make a difference for Lepas?
It’s challenging, because as designers we have visions, but we also need to present our ideas, and they need to resonate with the people in Europe, with the people in Indonesia, with the people in Middle East.
So we always need to have some kind of element that is going to assure success. So when it comes to the maybe concept cars, we’ll always try to introduce some new materials. But we also need to be careful not to detach ourselves from the more conventional customers that want to see still the chrome and the glossy black and all that.
Interior design seems to be a critical element of the Lepas philosophy. You mentioned porcelain as being an inspiration. Are you exploring any new technologies, materials or ideas like porcelain to make Lepas more unique?
Yes, we are always looking to improve both interior and exterior design, and I would very warmly invite you to come to our April and October events where we will show our new projects, where you’re welcome to see and look where we are heading at.
So that’s where we will declare what’s new and what we are doing behind the scenes.
It’s a long process, but yet in China it’s much faster than in other countries. So yeah, there’ll be more versions, more advanced versions of the Lepas, and specifically the materials and all that, coming soon.
At the moment, the Lepas model lineup is exclusively SUVs. Are you looking to expand that with more traditional body styles?
Yes, we do, and I really would like to invite you to future events where we have things in store ready to be presented.
I wouldn’t like to disclose any of these at this moment as I would like to have you anticipate the moment where we present the car without any preconceptions.
As a designer, I always believe that we shouldn’t give any easter eggs out and just present the car in its beautiful state.