Nissan Stories Europe People Innovations Future Nissan Ariya one Electric Future 10 colors
COLOURS OF THE FUTURE
How would you go about creating an entirely new colour? It’s almost impossible to imagine, isn’t it? Yet that was essentially the brief for the designers working on the aesthetics of the new all-electric Nissan Ariya – resulting in the creation of two exclusive hues never seen before on Nissan’s lineup.
Lesley Busby, Colour Manager at Nissan Design Europe, explains Ariya’s pioneering spirit “helped the team get into an innovative mindset – it gave us the drive to offer something new”. As a result, “this gave the team more capacity to devote themselves towards nurturing the powerful elements of Ariya’s story”.
Of course, the “powerful element” of Ariya that stands out the most is its electrified powertrain. “This theme was the biggest discussion point behind our colours. We realised they needed to convey the power and quietness that electric vehicles represent”.
With the inspiration defined, the next step was to create mood boards. Lesley adds, “typically we start with twice the total number of colours concepts we want to have in the final line-up”.
“From here, we then take our ideas and work with production and paint teams. This stage involves lots of experimentation and exploration on concepts, which sees our ideas transformed from our dreams to a physical form”. For Ariya, continual experimentation meant their ideas eventually coalesced into two exclusive new colours: Akatsuki Copper and Aurora Green.
Akatsuki Copper “is symbolic of a new dawn”, with its name inspired by the phrase for ‘dawn’ in the Japanese language. The copper tone also immediately sparks connections with harnessing the power of electricity.
Meanwhile, Aurora Green takes its cue from the mythical Northern Lights, with these natural electromagnetic displays once again providing a reference to the beauty of silent, electrical power. And like the natural phenomenon, “it features amazing hints of colour that transform depending on how you look at it”.
