July 31, 2023 – Honda announced that Honda eVTOL was named a 2023 Red Dot winner in the Design Concept discipline of the Red Dot Design Award,^*1 one of the world’s most respected design awards. Moreover, two promotional videos Honda created for its motorcycle products, namely ADV160 and CBR250RR, were named Red Dot winners in the Brand & Communication Design discipline of the award.

The Honda eVTOL is an electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft that Honda is developing by leveraging a variety of core Honda technologies, including electrification, combustion, aerodynamics and control technologies. Striving to realize long-range, user-friendly inter-city (city-to-city) transportation, Honda is developing an eVTOL which will be powered by a gas turbine hybrid power unit. Honda is envisioning the creation of new value through the establishment of a new “mobility ecosystem” featuring Honda eVTOL at its core, combining with mobility products on the ground.

With a goal to realize a comfortable and new air travel experience, the development team has pursued designs that enable Honda eVTOL to offer a special and inspiring interior space for each individual passenger. The exterior design features a large window area to convey to passengers the spaciousness, brightness and comfort of the interior space. 

*1 The Red Dot Award was founded in 1955 and has become one of the most respected design awards worldwide. The award is administered by Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen in Essen, Germany. For the Product Design awards, 51 categories of industrial products are judged on 9 criteria including the degree of innovation, functionality, durability and ergonomics.

The ADV160 is an adventure-oriented scooter equipped with a new engine with the eSP+^*2 engine configuration, offering powerful and comfortable riding performance as well as environmental performance that complies with the latest exhaust gas emissions regulations^*3. As for design, the development team strived to create a distinctive style with a sense of progressiveness while also creating a sporty and tough image. 

This video was designed to enable not only the riders but everyone to enjoy the product brand image of the ADV160. In order to convey the appeal of the ADV160 in an easy-to-understand manner – “Riding the ADV160 enables riders to find an adventurous spirit in their heart even during everyday commuting” – 3D CG animation was used entirely for the rider, the background and the scooter to create a dynamic and realistic expression with an adventurous feeling. High precision and details were pursued for rider movements and motorcycle behaviors such as accelerating, turning and stopping, especially for the riding scenes, with help from Honda motorcycle test riders.

Honda ADV160 “DISCOVER NEW EXCITEMENT”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_WUghFp7pI

Honda ADV160 “DISCOVER NEW EXCITEMENT”

*2 The enhanced Smart Power+ (eSP+) is a collective name for the new-generation environmentally-responsible scooter engines which feature both high output and outstanding environmental performance. eSP+ was developed by adopting value-added technologies to the original “eSP,” environmentally-responsible scooter engines, which resulted in excellent environmental performance, increased output and reduction of friction.

*3 The 2020 exhaust gas emission regulation in Japan

The CBR250RR is a lightweight supersport model developed based on the concept of the CBR “RR” series: “Total Control - Maximizing the joy of riding.” The CBR250RR is characterized by performance that combines high power at the low-to-medium rpm range with sharp acceleration to the high rpm range unique only to supersport models, as well as by its edgy design that features a low front end that elevates high toward the rear end.

This video was designed to convey the attractiveness of the CBR250RR – “Any rider can experience the joy of riding more casually” – with emphasis on the fun feeling. With the use of 3D CG animation, the video expresses a world where reality and fantasy intersect, combining a city riding scene depicting familiar everyday life, and a circuit riding scene depicting a beautiful near-future like those seen in a science fiction movie. As with the video for ADV160, Honda motorcycle test riders contributed to the creation of highly realistic images for the riding scenes. 

CBR250RR “PLAY LEGIT”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTlpoxChpqs

CBR250RR “PLAY LEGIT”

“The Red Dot Design Award is one of the most prestigious awards in the world, and we are very pleased to win this award. With our eVTOL, we designed a future where people can expand their range of activities and find new joy in their time and space for mobility. For the promotional videos for the ADV160 and CBR250RR, we used 3D CG animation to express the dynamic images of these models in an easy-to-understand manner so that customers around the world can relate to the characters in the videos who are enjoying the attractiveness of each model. Honda will continue to offer pleasant surprises and excitement in people’s daily lives through our human-centric monozukuri (art of making things).

“We are very honored to be named a winner in the Design Concept competition of this world-class design award. Honda eVTOL is being developed toward a goal to offer people the ‘joy of expanding their lifestyle options with more accessible mobility in the skies,’ and all team members will continue to work as one to offer such joy to as many customers as possible and as quickly as possible.”