Miata Designer Matano Provides Cryptic Clues to His Mysterious New Venture
June 23, 2009
By Michelle Krebs
Ah -- the plot thickens.
Legendary Mazda Miata designer Tom Matano, who last week was revealed to be the design director for a start-up company that will assemble cars in Louisiana, provided only cryptic clues about the kind of vehicle to be produced and the more important, innovative business model to be employed.
Without giving away any secrets, Matano said in a phone interview with AutoObserver that the business model is more revolutionary than the car itself. But he promised a kinship between the buyer and the car, not identical but similar in spirit to that between the Miata and its owner.
The Backdrop
Last week, the mystery of the new start-up car company began when reports surfaced that a start-up car company was on the eve of announcing the purchase of a former General Motors parts plant as the assembly site for its first-ever car.
By midweek, the where and the who were revealed.
The company is V-Vehicle Co., of San Diego, a new company backed by California venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which supplies the funding for a number of environmental projects and companies, including another start-up automaker, Fisker Automotive.
V-Vehicle CEO and project visionary Frank Varasano is a former executive vice president of Oracle Corp., the database and software giant. Company chairman is Ray Lane of the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. And the venture capital company's John Doerr is a V-Vehicle managing partner.
But the who got more intriguing when it was revealed that Matano, a rock star in the automotive design world, and Texas investor T. Boone Pickens, who made his billions in oil but, of late, has been loudly advocating alternative energy like wind and natural gas, were involved. Further, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, whose climate change film earned him a Nobel prize and Oscar, recently became affiliated with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
"We're joined by some of the most revered names in American business to build the next great American car in Northeast Louisiana," said Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal at the announcement at the old GM plant, according to the newspaper in Monroe, Louisiana, where 1,400 jobs will be created. "We're here to announce an opportunity to transform the entire American auto industry and the economy of northeastern Louisiana.... The concept is amazing and the team behind the company is first class."
What Car?
Matano said little about the details of the car, which will be launched in the next 18 to 24 months, except that it will be fuel-efficient and energy efficient. Nevertheless, the first likely will be gasoline-powered, it has been speculated.
"It's too early to talk about it," he told AutoObserver. "It'll be a pretty neat vehicle."
He recalled when he introduced the original Miata he described the bond between the owner and the car as one where the owner opens the garage door at bedtime to say good night to the car.
Of the upcoming car from V-Vehicle, he said, "It will be one that you get up in the morning, go to the garage with a smile on your face and say good morning to it. It has a different connotation [than Miata] as energy giving, happy. But still the goal is to design a car that provides a sort of kinship."
Indeed, it was kinship between a Matano-designed Miata and its owner, V-Vehicle founder Varasano, that brought the designer and visionary together. "He [Varasano] owned a Miata and liked it so he tracked me down. I was picked as one of the candidates for the design job," acknowledged Matano, who will retain his post as executive director of industrial design at San Francisco's Academy of Art University.
He has been for some time and will continue to be part-time design director/consultant for V-Vehicle. Already, a team of designers to staff day-to-day operations at the Southern California studios has been hired. "We have a team of designers in San Diego, but we wanted to keep it very quiet," Matano said.
What Business Model?
At his first meeting with Matano, Varasano began explaining an idea he had for a new business model -- a revolutionary one -- for producing vehicles. His description sounded not identical but similar to one Matano had developed during his Mazda days.
"I had an idea for a different business model a long time ago. I presented it to Mazda, but I never pursued it any further. Being a designer, I had no outlet for it," said Matano.
Further, while he wanted a venue for his business model, Matano didn't want to start or run a company, as fellow car designer Henrik Fisker is doing with Fisker Automotive.
"Frank's vision was one I felt I could work with," Matano said. And so far so good. "I feel really good about the way the operation is going," he confirmed. "It reminds me of the Miata time, with direct report to the chairman. Then we kept [Miata] to ourselves, presented what we wanted to do and the chairman and CEO led the way."
Matano will say little about the business model, except that it has to do with "how you communicate with customers...a new way of thinking."
Time for Change
Matano acknowledges timing may be right for some revolutionary ideas in the current tumultuous car industry -- and the timing was right for him to hop aboard a new venture, allowed by the fact that he was not with another car company but is in academia.
Matano likens the current automotive era to the 1930s when all kinds of new upstart companies, like Buick, Chrysler and other long-forgotten brands, cropped up. "All of a sudden there's a new world that's opened up and there's opportunity," he said. "Not everybody will be successful but there will be winners."
Were it not for the announcement of the Louisiana plant, the new car company would have remained shrouded in secrecy longer as far as Matano is concerned. And clearly, the last chapter for this mystery company is many months away from being written.
Photos
1 - Tom Matano
2 - Frank Varasano
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