Chicago, Illinois, USA
Top Chinese, Canadian, German, and U.S. transportation designers and manufacturers Yanfeng International Automotive, Daimler Truck, Alstom Transport, Textron Aviation, Lit Motors, and Zin Boats Have Won 2025 Good Design Awards for their sustainable and superior designs that meet today’s needs for greater, more streamlined mobility in this third decade of the 21st-Century.
Whether in high density urban environments or for more recreational transport, today’s consumers expect and demand more from mobility, not only with sustainability, safety and high performance at the top of the list, but with a high priority for recreation—much more than simple, conventional travel and transport.
Today’s users want vehicles that serve multiple purposes and adapt to diverse use cases.
Case in point is the new YFT Smart Cabin XiM25 by Yanfeng International Automotive Technology Co. Ltd. that transforms the car interior into a flexible third living space, adaptable for activities such as camping, relaxing, movie-watching, and immersive gaming. Its kinetic seating system offers versatility by morphing into hover seats, a fishing bench, or even an in-car twin bed, providing comfort and functionality tailored to various needs.
To enhance user experience, transparent door panels display real-time external imagery, improving awareness of traffic conditions and safety. Complementing this, lighting and animations sync with roof displays to create an engaging atmosphere inside the vehicle.
The design also features unique outdoor camping integration, allowing seats to swivel 90 degrees and combine with the console, seamlessly connecting the interior space with the outdoors.
Enter Daimler Truck’s brand Freightliner—the fifth generation of its heavy-duty model Cascadia setting new standards in safety, efficiency and profitability.
Led by Martin Kreidl, DTNA Design Team, Daimler Truck North America, an all-new Intelligent Braking Control System (IBCS) for the Freightliner Cascadia introduces Comfort Braking. These features ensure smoother, more confident braking—especially in sudden stops—and help to elongate brake pad life through even wear.
Also new are the Dual Stage Intelligent LED Headlights, which offer increased durability and impact resistance. They are also engineered to melt away ice and eliminate condensation in minutes. With an increased beam pattern, auto high beam feature and easier beam adjustment capabilities, they enhance visibility, safety, and driver comfort.
Key aerodynamic improvements for the fifth generation provide additional fuel economy benefit of 1.9 percent and include a new hood design, a redesigned A-pillar deflector, three-piece front wheel well closeouts, a hood-to-bumper seal, and new bumper air ducts that direct airflow around the underbody and tires to increase efficiency.
The new SEPTA Streetcar designed by Alexandre Giroux, Romain Zolfo, Ariane Therrien, Samuel Barker, and Mathieu Vermeulen from Alstom Advanced & Creative Design for Alstom Transport Canada, is transforming the trolley system to meet the needs of riders today and tomorrow for more accessible, faster, and easier to use service for everyone.
Alstom’s Trolley Modernization includes new, accessible vehicles that hold more passengers, new on-street stations that are well-marked, safe, and fully accessible, infrastructure and operational improvements to make service faster and more reliable, and proposed line extensions to make it easier for riders to reach more destinations.
Trolley Modernization will introduce new stations that make it easy to find, level boarding that makes it easy to get on, and consistent service that makes it easy to get where you are going.
In the world of luxury business jets, the new Citation Latitude, designed by Diana Arterburn and Duane Kinser for Textron Aviation, allows you to step into the future of business innovation with greater efficiency and capability at altitude.
Textron’s Citation Latitude enables customers to do more, carry more with more fuel-efficient engines that allows users to travel smarter for both your business and the planet. Greater payload capabilities ensure seamless operations, so your business runs smoothly.
With greater fuel efficiency, improved range and increased thrust, this new Textron jet is the epitome of high performance. Every detail is considered and designed to take your business further.
The all-electric Z-11 Electric Tender designed by Piotr Zin, Ross Carmichael, and Michael Givens at Zin Boats has stringent safety protocols that allow it to be stowed inside a superyacht.
The Z11’s sleek, streamlined carbon-fiber construction is as modern as its propulsion system.
The boat features innovative technology that breaks speed, power, and range records, making it the world’s fastest electric tender capable of reaching speeds over 60 miles per hour.
The Z11’s exterior hull, by designer Patrick Banfield, is also groundbreaking. Rather than having long strakes, the Z11’s hull form is shaped more like a high-performance sailboat. This design reduces wetted surface area and drag, increasing the boat’s range.
The interior reflects the elegance of minimalism inspired by traditional Japanese design. At first glance, it appears empty—but it conceals a wealth of features: boarding steps, ladders, a shower, bar, retractable sunshade, and more.
As the first of its kind, the Z-11 Proton represents the next generation of yacht tenders: high-performance, zero-emissions, and effortlessly beautiful.
Designed by Bill Web for Lit Motors Corporation, the Lit Motors AEV (Autonomous-balancing Electric Vehicle) combines the best of two and four-wheeled travel without compromise.
Lit’s vision integrates the comfort and safety of a car with the romance and efficiency of a motorcycle.
With fewer parts, less waste, and more sustainable, Lit’s AEV platform is 1/4 the weight, 1/6 the battery pack, 1/10 the parts count, and 80% more efficient over the lifecycle of a mid-sized EV.
Web’s patented tech empowers drivers with steering-wheel control to lean around turns up to a 45° angle, reduce commute time up to 20%, and save more than 1/10 the operational cost of an EV.
The gyro-technology allows for the AEV to maintain stability where motorcycles fail by transferring roll moments to the gyros, not the occupants.
With seatbelts, airbags, and steel/aluminum chassis, the CMG system offers a fourth level of protection unmatched by other vehicles.
