The aim of the Vehicle Design programme at the RCA is to educate future generations of vehicle designers and make them aware of the changing social, cultural, commercial and technical context of mobility.

Through its original teaching timetable, expert staff team and collaboration with industry and users, the programme educates vehicle designers to be strategic and visionary. The programme is exceptional in that it bridges traditional vehicle design as an exercise in styling with a user and issues-based approach.

Automotivation is the philosophy of the programme. It takes vehicle design in new directions that encourage creative excellence through exploration, innovation and research. It seeks to reposition the practice of the discipline at the forefront of the debate about movement of goods and people. Students are expected to develop an awareness of the range of issues that affect vehicle design, including legislation, production, safety, technology, materials, aerodynamics, ergonomics and environmental impact, as well as key aesthetic principles.

Traffic jams, congestion charging, parking spaces, safety and environmental concerns are all determinants of the changing landscape for private and public transport. The motor car, the defining machine of the twentieth century and the technological achievement that facilitated private transport for the masses, has to respond to the changing social, cultural, economic and environmental agendas of the twenty-first century.

Vehicle Design at the RCA provides a fertile arena for considering the future of inclusive mobility. Students are encouraged to develop their own concepts, drawing from the history of car design, including the pioneering stylists who defined the early vehicle design profession, while also identifying potential new design methodologies. Research, observation and scenario-building facilitate new design narratives and new vehicle typologies.