The CDN Christmas cracker: best bits of 2024

The nature of car design journalism naturally involves plenty of travel, off-the-cuff chats and Big Thinking conversations on stage. There are car launches, brand launches (and closures) and studio visits. Motor shows. Design conventions. The list goes on. 

Even in a slow-moving industry, the job would be fast-paced but car design is a different beast altogether. To take stock of all that has happened in 2024, the Car Design News writers have put together their best bits and, looking ahead to 2025, things they hope will transpire. From all of us at CDN, we wish you a very merry festive break ahead. 

Freddie Holmes 

Favourite moment

Is it that time already? Sheesh. This year has flown by and it’s difficult to pinpoint one moment as a standout among standouts. Aside from getting married and sunning it up in Montenegro, my visit to Ford and Donkervoort in May is certainly up there, heading first to Cologne for an early peek at a concept before high-tailing it up to the Netherlands for bonkers Dutch sportscar manufacturer Donkervoort. Fun fact: the office in Lelystad sits on land that until the 1960s would have been underwater. But as is often the case, the most poignant memories are those that involve people, and the easy (and most recent) option would be to flag the People Awards in London. It’s just a very fun place to be, and I somehow came away with two trophies. Rumours they were collected on behalf of other designers are false, slanderous and frankly insulting… 

Christmas wish

I’m very much looking forward to the direction of BMW and Audi, both under new design leadership and with exciting prospects ahead. We went to see the latter’s incoming design boss Massimo Frascella in Ingolstadt for a catch up, and his takeaway – “I go to bed exhausted and wake up excited” – is indicative of the kind of passion he is already pouring in to the project. And as a BMW fanboy, well, let’s see where Max Missoni builds on what we have seen with the Neue Klasse – concept car of the year for Car Design Review 11! That being said, can everyone just slow down a bit. What’s the rush? 

Guy Bird 

Favourite moment

The unveil of the V16 hybrid £3.2m (US$4.1m) Tourbillon hypercar on a balmy night in June, at Bugatti’s Molsheim home will live long in the memory. Among an elite ‘Ultra High Net Worth Individual’ guestlistand quaffing champagne poured by waiters manhandling giant-sized bottles, the event was a rare chance to clock an array of Bugatti cars spanning a century-plus of luxury and performance design. Seeing the Tourbillon’s unbelievably intricate skeletal driver dials up close was automotive art made real and should help the car age gracefully for another 100 years, no problem. Expensive, yes, landfill, no.

Christmas wish for 2024

Despite the rush to create cars ever more quickly, mainly due to the seemingly insatiable Chinese car market’s appetite for ‘the new’, maybe a more upgradeable and sustainable approach should be explored, for premium-to-luxury brands especially. Easy to say and tough to push back against internally and externally, but with skill and wisdom perhaps ‘slow creation’ could become a branding point of difference, like the drinks industry does so successfully with fine wines and mature whisky.

James McLachlan 

Favourite moment

What was that? 

2024 mate. 

It’s gone already? 

Uh-huh. Quick wasn’t it.

So runs my late-December internal monologue. A lot of good things happened this year so picking a highlight is tricky. Too tricky. So maybe it is the vibes that count. Embiggening those vibes were, in no order of preference: Sasha Selipanov’s Nilu hypercar – a timely and welcome celebration of all things analogue; my own highly entertaining week with a Caterham Super Seven; CDN’s return to Shanghai and Detroit; and finally Shiro Nakamura’s heartfelt acceptance speech at the CDN People Awards – a graceful curtain closer for 2024 and typically of the man himself.  

Christmas wish

There are few greater privileges in life than the opportunity to create beautiful things. And beauty brings joy. Worth reminding ourselves of this now and again.   

Karl Smith 

Favourite moment

Once again, my favourite moment-actually week- of 2024, was Milan Design Week in April. Coming on the heels of the last Geneva Motor Show, it was refreshing to see a whole city of furniture, interiors, materials, lighting and yes, cars, all in a dialogue about design and the future. And in Milan, a city whose making- and remaking- contributes much to the debate about the future of the city.

Christmas wish

My 2025 Christmas wish for my colleagues in every field of design: May you live joyously in the present, design for a better future, and honour the past in your work.

Laura Burstein 

Favourite moment

This year I spent less time with my CDN friends due to family and personal matters, but there were plenty of bright spots nonetheless. I got an early look at Nilu27, Sasha Selipinov’s long-planned solo project, and went in-depth with Chris Benjamin on the recently relaunched Scout brand. I was honoured to be invited to judge four concours this year, including the prestigious EyesOn Design show near Detroit, founded by Dr. Philip Hessburg, whom we sadly lost a few months later. I also continued my design studio tours, including Rivian’s modern space in Southern California, hosted by Jeff Hammoud and team (that story coming soon).

Christmas wish

We are in a time of uncertainty, where misinformation and fear have given rise to sentiments of nationalism and protectionism all over the world. My wish for the design community in the coming year is to remain steadfast in our desires to better society, to remember that collaboration make us stronger, and to be courageous in expressing our most authentic selves. 

Mark Smyth

Favourite moment

My favourite moment of 2024 was attending the reveal of the Genesis Magma models at the Nurburgring. Design changes on the performance models are minimal, but the event gave me my first full speed taxi experience of the famous circuit, the chance to chat to legendary race driver Jacky Ickx and celebrate Luc Donckerwolke’s birthday with a very lighthearted chat about design at a traditional German restaurant. Lots of boxes ticked that day. 

Christmas wish

2024 saw some designers go back to basics and focus less on overdone styling and in-your-face tech and more on great design and the joy of tactility. More of that in 2025 please. And a new Audi A2 would be nice please Massimo Frascella.

Michael Nash 

Favourite moment

For me, the top design moment of 2024 was Renault unveiling its iconic 17, reimagined in the form of a restomod prototype, at the Paris Motor Show. The team at Renault worked with French designer Ora-Ïto to create this stunning homage to the original model. It shamefully went a little under the radar, potentially drowned out by the sheer number of restomods that keep on surfacing. You could argue that this trend of resuscitating old nameplates is pointless and shows a lack of creative forward thinking, but then I’d just show you a picture of this beauty. Also, the fact that it will probably never see the light of day as a production car makes me want one even more. 

Christmas wish

I hope that 2025 brings a new car podcast that can quench my thirst. CDN does a lovely episode from time to time, but my addiction needs to be fed constantly. And perhaps the pod can delve into other subjects as well as design, like food. Everyone loves food.

Stephen Dobie 

Favourite moment

Visiting Japan to drive the latest Nissan GT-R Nismo on the iconic Hakone Turnpike, thus experiencing a new pinnacle of a car that’s been in production for the entirety of my 16-year career. Many of the design and engineering quirks which betray its age only serve as richer character as the cars around it increasingly draw power from a plug. Boy, does the GT-R team have a job on its hands building an electrified replacement worthy of the badge – but this was never a lightweight car and I’d imagine few people are more up to the task of drawing new agility out of battery power. 

A little less exotic, but the latest Dacia Duster is also a minor triumph. As cheap as most European superminis but with deep ability, design charm and a slick hybrid powertrain.

Christmas wish

That the hydrogen dreams of several marques – including Alpine and its sexy Alpenglow concept – bring more optimism to an increasingly fraught discourse around future propulsion. And that those on social media remember that behind rebrands like Jaguar’s are human beings who ought to be discussed as such, no matter how unkindly you take to the CPR applied to a company that’s sought relevance for quite some time.

Trinity Francis 

Favourite moment 

Interviewing Thierry Metroz, DS Automobiles’ design director on the new DS SM Tribute was a highlight for me. There’s dozens of beautifully executed restomods out there but the SM Tribute is a true reimagining of a car that’s an iconic part of the brand’s history. Like history books themselves, I think there’s a lot we can learn from historic design concepts regardless of their success or otherwise in the period. I’ve always got a soft spot for classic cars and somehow DS managed to pair the classic and contemporary exquisitely. 

Christmas wish 

Initially my wish would be for fewer parking and speed sensors in new cars, but my revised wish is for sensors to be more subtle, to do their job in silence rather than constantly attacking my senses with the same unimaginative bong when I’m a barge pole away from anything. Professionally, I’d like to see my passport full with stamps from new locations covering Car Design News’ international events, chasing down leads in far flung countries, driving exotic cars, and gawking at stunning vistas while sipping high-proof colourful drinks.