Recently, the award ceremony for the BYD Global Automotive Design Competition concluded at the Fang Cheng Bao exhibition area of the Shanghai Auto Show. Mu Yusen, a 2022 master student from the Department of Industrial Design at the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University secured second place with his entry Super X. His competition work and car model were showcased in a dedicated exhibition area at the Shanghai Auto Show, highlighting the talent of China’s new generation of designers.

Mu Yusen / Super X

Project Description:
Super X is a dual-mode vehicle designed for both terrestrial and aerial mobility. Inspired by the competition’s “Cosmic Diversity” theme and emerging low-altitude economy trends, the design boldly reimagines future transportation through integrated wheel tracks and flight paths.

The vehicle features a split structure:

·The ground module handles daily road commuting while utilizing cloud-based data processing for seamless takeoff/landing coordination.

·The aerial module combines a central cockpit with quad rotors, delivering speed and comfort.

This visionary new energy vehicle pushes boundaries in sustainable mobility innovation.

Professor Ma Sai, Dean of the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, emphasized in his keynote speech that this collaboration exemplifies industry-academia integration. The academy champions the fusion of art and technology, exploring both Eastern aesthetics and cutting-edge innovation. Such partnerships create fertile ground for cultivating multidisciplinary talents with artistic sensibility, technological acuity, and market awareness, ultimately advancing China’s automotive design leadership globally.

The competition provides students pre-career exposure to industry trends while helping enterprises identify groundbreaking young designers. By bridging academia and industry, it accelerates the development of design talent as a new quality productive force, propelling Chinese automotive design toward premium global standards.