“People want to feel protected, and now with the pandemic, even more so,” agreed Adam Hatton, the creative director for exterior design at Jaguar Land Rover, speaking by phone the same week. “We are working on the idea of Jaguars being a big, beautiful sanctuary—like a spa. It’s even more relevant now than ever.”
Indeed, where safety concerns in luxury automobiles have typically centered around, first, protection from collision and, in countries like Mexico, Russia, and Brazil, protection from attack, robbery, or kidnapping, now safety concerns include a medical element both mental and physical.
“The most important thing for a long time has been to know that you and your family are safe,” Wagener says. “The important question now is how to protect your health.”
Now More Than Ever
The idea that a vehicle can be a protective cocoon from harsh elements has always excited, of course, dating back to the coach-built Packards and Continentals and Rolls-Royces of the previous turn of the century and, before that, to the gilded and decadent confines of horse-drawn coaches. The concept of car-as-spa these days means calming mood and ambient lighting, state-of-the-art sound systems, massaging seats, warm and plush trims—all of which already exist in cars from the BMW M850i to the Porsche Cayenne Coupe to the Mercedes AMG CLA 45.
What’s more, in parts of Asia notorious for pollution, Volvo, Hyundai, and Nissan have long incorporated air quality monitors and filters into their cars. (Volvo, the Swedish brand owned by China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, has often made in-car air quality a selling point.) In 2010, Infiniti equipped its M line with a plasma cluster ion generator called “Forest Air,” which it said could sterilize pathogens while a sensor blocked polluted air and particulate matter from the cabin. In 2014, a joint venture of Peugeot-Citroen and Dongfeng Peugeot Citroën Automobile even installed air conditioning systems in Elysée model cars that could filter out 90% of pollutants; the cars come with a negative-ion generator that kills mold and bacteria, as well as dissolves harmful gases in the air.
In the U.S., vehicles such as the Mercedes GLE AMG and Volvo’s XC90 and S60 include built-in air purifiers and/or fragrance disseminators set in the glove compartment. Tesla offers a HEPA filtration system in the Model S and Model X with the claimed capability to reduce pollution levels in the vehicle to “undetectable” levels. Rolls-Royce and Bentley offer high-end air filtration systems throughout their lineup to help remove particulates and pollen. Such systems work through the car’s ventilation and climate systems to scent and cleanse the cabin; some brands even offer a layer of active charcoal inside the car that can remove odors and ground-level ozone.
But the notion that a modern car should totally purify any significant amount of air outside the car is relatively new.
“We are working toward the idea that the car could actually take bad things out of the air, almost clean the air,” Wagener said. “It’s an opportunity to address the sustainability issue that we have already been considering.”
Judging from past history at Mercedes and its competitors, the system would be similar to existing processes that work to remove airborne allergens like car fumes—but would also work on a broader level than just the car itself, effectively and significantly cleaning the air immediately surrounding the exterior of the vehicle. Mercedes has been exploring such options for decades: In 1989, the Mercedes Benz SL roadster was the first serial production model to come with a standard cabin air filter. By 2017, Mercedes was the first car manufacturer to achieve the asthma- and allergy-friendly certification for its interior cabin air filters from Allergy Standards Ltd. and the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA).
Mental Health as Primary Concern
Along with physical health concerns like clean air, coronavirus has prompted designers to consider more closely the idea of mental and emotional health as it relates to your vehicle.