Torsus Praetorian wins 2020 Red Dot Award

World’s first heavy-duty 4x4 off-road bus receives prestigious award for outstanding design quality

THE Torsus Praetorian heavy-duty off-road bus, which many readers may have seen in action at Hillhead 2018, has been awarded a prestigious Red Dot Award in the Product Design 2020 category, for its outstanding design quality. 

Torsus, in partnership with Werkemotion – an independent award-winning transportation and industrial design studio – designed the Praetorian, the world’s first heavy-duty 4x4 off-road bus, to transport personnel and equipment safely across the world’s harshest environments.

The bus is based on an upgraded heavy-duty MAN chassis and is powered by a MAN engine and drivetrain. From the Michelin off-road tyres to the Line-X military-grade coating on body parts, the Praetorian is engineered to take on any terrain, in any conditions, anywhere in the world.

For more than 60 years, the Red Dot Award has provided a platform for designers and companies to assess good design. Each of the 6,500 products entered into the competition, from 60 countries worldwide, were tested and judged by an expert jury in search of the very best in design and innovation.

Over several days, the jurors test all the entries in order to assess the aesthetic, the materials selected, the level of craftsmanship, the surface structure, ergonomics and functionality, before deciding on the design quality of the products, with only the best designs receiving an award.

Vakhtang Dzhukashvili, founder and chief executive officer of Torsus, said: ‘It’s a privilege and an honour for us to be awarded the globally respected and admired Red Dot award for the outstanding design of our iconic Torsus Praetorian.

‘We are very proud to accept this award and it is testament to the skilled work of the Torsus team and our design partners at Werkemotion who, together, helped produce the world’s toughest and most capable off-road bus.’ 

Bystrík Míček, chief executive officer and design manager of Werkemotion, said: ‘We are very proud to have worked alongside Torsus to design the world’s first off-road 4x4 bus and we are ecstatic they have been selected for what is, undoubtedly, one of the best product design awards in the world.’ 

Professor Dr Peter Zec, founder and chief executive officer of Red Dot, said: ‘The winners of the Red Dot Award have proved that they have created excellent products worthy of winning an award.

‘The products won over the jury not only through their aesthetic, but also thanks to their incomparable functionality. With their designs, the award winners are setting new standards in their industry. I wish to congratulate them most sincerely on their success.’ 

In addition to the award, on 22 June 2020, the Torsus Praetorian will be added to the exhibition ‘Design on Stage’ in the Red Dot Design Museum Essen, where all of the award-winning products will be on show. From that date, the Praetorian will also be presented in the online exhibition on the Red Dot website and in the Red Dot Design Yearbook 2020/2021, which will be published in July 2020.