Realizing the Indonesian National Car: The Design of the 4x2 Wheel Drive Passenger Car Exterior using the Kansei Engineering Type 1

As the imbalance of automotive market competition continues, the domination of foreign industries demands a proper attention from Indonesia’s automobile manufacturers. Efforts in creating a national car design that is emotionally attached to Indonesia’s automotive market, will be able to meet the challenge appropriately, in part by using the Kansei Engineering Type 1: Category Classification method. Identified through literature studies and interviews, there are 164 Kansei words that represent the exterior designs of a 4×2-wheel drive passenger car. The Kansei words were categorized into 12 groups using an affinity diagram and then arranged into a five-level semantic differential scale for product samples assessment. Results were further processed using factor analysis, leaving nine groups remaining. A collaborative design process with a product designer resulted in an exterior design of a hatchback car with four doors. Scores from the evaluation on Kansei word groups “satisfying”, “luxurious”, “sporty”, “aesthetic”, “innovative”, “mobile/flexible”, “complicated/complex”, “credible”, and “masculine” indicate that the car exterior design meets users’ emotional needs.