Work / CRRC Changchun

Train design for the World's largest rolling stock manufacturer

In 2016 CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles Co. Ltd., a division of the world’s largest rolling stock manufacturer CRRC Corporation Limited, chose tangerine as a strategic design partner from a global search process. The aim was to raise the design quality of all their passenger rail cars, including high-speed trains, maglev trains, metros and light rail. Their ambition being to win more customers domestically in China as well as internationally.

Now into its fifth year, we’ve designed over eighteen different rolling stock vehicles for CRRC, including some of China’s highest-profile projects, and using some of the most advanced rail vehicle technologies in the world.

Services

Trend Forecasting & Vision Setting
Product Design
Design Engineering
Colour, material & finish
User Experience & UI

Learning

CRRC wanted to extend, develop and enhance its internal design capabilities, through project-based knowledge and skills sharing with tangerine’s creative team. To accommodate this ambition, our Chinese and European designers have been involved in an exchange programme, relocating to CRRC’s manufacturing hub in Changchun, Northern China, for extended working visits. Working side-by-side with CRRC’s engineers as part of an immersive design process, they exchange ideas, gain a fuller understanding of technical constraints and skill-share expertise. These periods of secondment have forged a highly successful way to build trust, improve efficiency, and encourage cultural exchange, as well as imparting technical know-how.

Leaping

Together the collaborative team problem-solve, so that the right design solutions are being developed to meet both the ambitions of CRRC’s clients and the end-user passengers, while also being highly practical for their manufacturing processes.

Tangerine’s senior team join client presentations to prospective buyers, explaining the design inspiration behind their work and helping CRRC to win pitches for new contracts. Senior members of tangerine’s design leadership team regularly give talks and hold workshops with CRRC’s senior management to help them better utilise innovation and strategy and design more effectively within their organisation.

Landing

This strategic partnership includes a mixture of interior passenger car design, exterior nose-cone and livery design. Since the outset tangerine has completed designs for multiple train types including High Speed, Maglev, Sleeper, Tourist, Double-deck and Metro varieties. A selection of completed projects are shown, demonstrating how we have helped CRRC to fulfil its ambitions of raising the quality of its design execution on the international stage.

CRRC Changchun are contributing to greener alternatives for China’s burgeoning demand for fast domestic transportation, and the design for a Double Decker Sleeper EMU train will offer affordable standard class sleeper train travel across China’s extensive high-speed rail network is also shown. This project will make an important contribution to China’s domestic infrastructure, which is the biggest in the world.

Drag

The years of cooperation with tangerine are enjoyable and both sides have made progress. The tangerine team is an international professional team, and the design of the tangerine enhances the competitiveness of our products. CRRC Changchun have also provided a brand new platform for tangerine in China. We look forward to the next cooperation cycle, we work together to consolidate our brand of products.

Mr Ma, Design Director at CRRC Changchun