IN PARTNERSHIP WITH LAND ENERGY
LAND is a Cleveland-based electric mobility company founded by Scott Colosimo. The District motorcycle offers a reference for clean, purposeful design, and CORE supplies the energy foundation for this challenge. LAND’s vision looks toward machines that bring energy, intelligence, and human experience together
THE CHALLENGE
LAND and CarDesign Academy invite you to design the “UN-CAR”: a 4-wheel electric mobility product built around a specific person, community, place, or way of living.
Start with a need, an opportunity, or a behavior—not a vehicle category.
Your design could carry from 1 to 6 people—or no people at all. It could move passengers, cargo, tools, equipment, or something entirely new. It could be driven, shared, unmanned, or a totally analogue diving experience.
The opportunity is yours to define.
KEY DATES
• Opens: Oct 19, 2026
• Submission deadline: Nov 13, 2026
• Judging window: Nov 13 – Nov 27, 2026 (2 weeks)
• Winner announced: ~Nov 27, 2026 (day after Thanksgiving, which falls Nov 26 this year)
START WITH PURPOSE
Choose a person, community, or use case that inspires you.
WHO is it for?
WHERE does it operate?
WHAT does it enable?
HOW does it solve a problem?
WHY should it exist?
Challenge conventional assumptions about mobility. Explore new ideas around occupancy, cargo, access, energy, intelligence, modularity, materials, and manufacturing.
DESIGN WITHIN A COMPACT MOBILITY ENVELOPE
Your concept should be small, lightweight, and low-speed by automotive standards.
Golf carts, LSVs, UTVs, and European L7e vehicles provide useful reference points for scale and performance—but they are not prescribed vehicle categories.
As a general guide:
LENGTH up to ~4,000 mm
WIDTH up to ~2,000 mm
HEIGHT up to ~2,500 mm
SPEED approximately 15–90 km/h, depending on use
You do not need to use the maximum dimensions or speed. Choose the size, performance, occupancy, and capabilities that make sense for your use case.
For public-road concepts, consider the relevant legal framework in your target market. For off-road, private-property, campus, resort, industrial, agricultural, or other concepts, clearly define the intended operating environment.
FIND YOUR OWN EXPRESSION
Explore what technology could contribute. Connect any technology you propose to your persona’s experience: what it changes, how they understand it, and how they stay in control. Make intelligence felt through the quality of the experience. Take inspiration from LAND’s clarity, restraint, and human-scale approach—but don't simply redesign an existing LAND product.
Develop a design language that grows from your user, purpose, and environment.
The result might look familiar—or completely unexpected.
THE FRAMEWORK SHOULD SUPPORT YOUR IDEA—NOT DEFINE IT.
THINK BEYOND THE CAR.
What should everyday mobility become?
PRIZES
- Winner: Free tuition on a future CDA Intensive (Tuition reimbursement if already enrolled)
- Runner Up: 50% discount on a future CDA Intensive
- Top entries will be showcased on LAND and CDA social media.
- Membership in our private CDA Discord community.
- ALL participants have full rights to share their concepts in their personal portfolio and social media.