Christoph Häußinger: Meet the man transforming Audi's lighting design

This is a big question! I mean, without light there is no life. Humans have always been connected to light. Without fire, for example, we wouldn’t have evolved into what we are today. Light is a crucial part of our life.

In terms of light design, it’s so important because it gives the car the right look. It underlines the character. As light designers, we’re always talking about the eyes of the car. How is the car looking at you? With lights, with the eyes of the car, you can fundamentally change how a car looks, so I think it’s very important.

Light design has always been a core pillar of Audi’s Vorsprung durch Technik ethos. Which models from Audi’s history stand out as milestones?

For me, a standout car in terms of lighting was the Audi A8 from 2013. It was the first model where we integrated the Matrix function, and I think it’s the perfect example of how to combine technology and design. If you look at the headlight, it doesn’t even look like a light you’d find on a car. It was really important for us to find a new look, a new feeling for this new technology, and we did.

I would also point out the third-generation Audi TT (2013). For me, this is a really iconic light graphic with its two vertical lines. It was a really sporty touch – perfect for the car.

Light design and exterior design go hand in hand. How do the two teams work together to reach a common goal?

It’s certainly a challenge! But it’s fun. First I’ll just walk around the car with the exterior designer when they’re developing the volumes and the outline of where the lamp will go, to get the essence of what the car is all about, what they’re trying to achieve.

For example, with the A6 e-tron they wanted to extend the shoulder of the car all the way to the lights, so you think about how you can help achieve this goal with the light design. The Q6 e-tron is a very good example of this where we’ve stretched the lines of the car seamlessly to the headlight. It’s good fun working with the exterior designers.

The Audi A6 e-tron treads new ground for lighting design and technology. Let’s start at the front – what are the highlights?

For the Audi A6 e-tron, the main goal was to have a really, really slim headlight to give a truly focused and sporty look to the face of the car. To do that we took out some functions you’d usually find in the headlight, like the high and low beam bulbs, and put them lower down in the bumper and hidden by a kind of black mask.

And that left us with just the daytime running lights and indicators where the headlight would usually be. We also wanted them to be horizontal rather than vertical to really show off the width of the car. The result is the slimmest, sleekest headlight design we’ve ever created at Audi.

And then there’s the digital content, the welcome scenarios. The A6 e-tron and the Q6 e-tron represent the first time ever that the driver has full customisation over the lighting graphics at the front of the car. Through their smartphone or the MMI touchscreen system they can choose from a number of different lighting signatures which allow them to subtly change the character of the car, while still retaining that Audi look.

But what was also really important for me with the A6 e-tron was how the lights look even when they’re switched off. As light designers, we’re always talking about light. When the lights turn on there’s always this 'Wow!' effect, but for me when you switch the car off it has the same importance. It still needs to have the same elegant, high-tech feeling. When the car is off and parked in a space, you need to be able to walk around the car and see all the little details, almost like jewellery. That’s my passion, creating the product, not just the light.

And what about at the back?

The rear of the A6 e-tron is really exciting. First you notice the big wraparound lightbar which is designed to make the car look wider and more elegant, but also futuristic. This slim, homogeneous red light gives this really high-tech and science fiction feel.

And then if you look closer you can see the OLED 2.0 technology we’re using for the digitalisation of the rear lights. This technology was first used on the Q6 e-tron, but now it’s using more pixels and a higher resolution to create these incredibly vivid, fluid light graphics at the back.

At Audi we always wanted to bring light into motion. We started with the swiping indicators, and now with this new technology the lights on the back of the A6 e-tron are always moving, always in motion. It’s something that’s never been seen before on other cars. It’s an amazing feature.

Finally, and most importantly, we come to the safety features. Light has always been a safety topic, because you have to use the indicators to turn, see where you’re going, and show other people that you’re stopping. It’s always been about light communicating with other drivers. Now, the A6 e-tron takes that to the next level with the triangle warning signal at the back of the car.