The new headquarters of Icona, a company specialising in design, engineering and prototyping, was inaugurated in Turin on 22th February. Located in an elegant, historic building in the city centre the new premises are home to 16 employees working in close collaboration with colleagues at the Shanghai offices and operational since 2010 (the year Icona was founded), and those at the Los Angeles Design Center, opened in 2016. The founders and shareholders of Icona are Teresio Gigi Gaudio, Chairman and CEO and the Turin-based companies Tecnocad and Cecomp, which provide technical expertise and structures dedicated to modelling and prototyping.
The inauguration was also an opportunity to preview the Nucleus, the concept that Icona will present at the Geneva Motor Show on 6 March. Designed by the team led by Global Design Director Samuel Chuffart, it is an MPV with autonomous drive designed for the future, “a first-class, elegant and seamless means of transport,” says Chuffart, “which embodies the Italian company’s vision of what mobility will look like the day after tomorrow”.
The body is asymmetrical, with only one door on the right, so the sides have a different look. The most important part for an autonomous drive car will almost certainly be the interiors,” Chuffart told Auto&Design. The Nucleus can in fact comfortably accommodate six people and the single seats can be configured with great flexibility, turning into a bench seat if necessary.
During its eight years of activity, Icona has presented several prototypes, starting with the 2011 Fuselage designed in Turin and the brand’s first concept, “a four-door coupé in which fluid, sensual forms are set off against the tension of long, taut lines that traverse the volumes to form a perfect balance between soft and rigid”, says Chuffart. In 2016 the Titanium Vulcano arrived, the first car in the world with a body made entirely of hand-modelled titanium, anticipated in its lines by the Vulcano concept unveiled in 2013 in Shanghai. Again in China, at the beginning of this year, Icona presented the Venus, a LVCHI-branded car with four-door sports coupé architecture and electric propulsion.
In less than a decade, Icona has seen its business grow very rapidly. “At the moment we are actively working on 22 projects between our offices in Turin, Shanghai and Los Angeles. We are working flat out to achieve the goals we have set ourselves, including revenues of 20 million euros for 2018 after the 18 million euros achieved last year,” concluded Teresio Gigi Gaudio, CEO and Chairman of Icona.
