Designing for a well-known car company like Audi is a dream job for many car enthusiasts, as the brand's rich history, reputation for innovation and performance can be carried through one's visionary eye.
However, dreams don't always come true, as the reality of working for a big automotive conglomerate like Volkswagen (VLKAF) (which owns Audi) sets in, as one person's radical, or revolutionary ideas may be set to the wayside thanks to corporate bureaucracy.
These days, former Audi and Bentley designer Stefan Sielaff has a different job as the global design head of Geely (GELYF) , where he was recently tasked with leading design for the EV-focused brand Zeekr. In a recent interview with Autocar, he exposed that there were certain advantages with working for a Chinese brand that its Western contemporaries lack.
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As a designer behind the luxury-focused cars at Zeekr, Sielaff is busy trying to build the identity of the brand through the development of new products. As a company that is still within its infancy, the former Audi design head says that the identity of brand like Zeekr starts as a clean state that is defined by very same people who designs the cars they produce.
"In the beginning, you define the brand, the brand philosophy, the corporate identity, the birthmark, the visual identity. This is all originating in the design department and is very, very important," Sielaff told Autocar. "Then the products and the brand statement are connected with each other."
Sielaff mentioned that at his old job at the Volkswagen Group-owned Audi, it takes about four years for a car to come from development to showroom. Thankfully, at Geely, the process is much faster and can result in a car of equal quality.
"I think it is sometimes quite difficult for a traditional car maker to do certain processes all of a sudden quicker, or cut processes, because it's the way they've done it for 100 years. The quality proves they’re right, as whatever you get from Volkswagen or Audi is top quality, but generally Geely is able to do the same now in a shorter period of time."
The embrace of new and cutting-edge technology plays a major role in how fast Zeekr develops new cars from conception to showroom floor. According to Sielaff, Zeekr's 007 — a $29,000 entry-level sedan was developed in the span of just two years thanks to cooperation using technology that's more than just run-of-the-mill Zoom meetings.
"The Zeekr 007 was developed in two years from the first sketch to the finished product. We have everything in the design studio in Gothenburg to build analogue models but even more important is the software and virtual reality (VR) technology we have," Sielaff said. "Minute by minute, we can send data to engineers for a simultaneous exchange and we do VR presentations every week where our CEO can be in China. We can walk around models with VR, and see each other as avatars."
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Additionally, when it comes to the people he works with on a day-to-day basis, the former Audi designer said that decisions at Chinese automakers come faster and with less bureaucracy by people who are more open-minded to new ideas.
"[Chinese automakers] are a bit more open for the world and I find it quite satisfying. Also, there’s the fact that things are happening very fast, with faster decisions," Sielaff said. "There is not another kind of authority or another group of people who have to discuss and decide, and this helps accelerate the development process a lot instead of really recooking things again and again."
The practice of poaching design talent from Western automakers is not an uncommon practice with Chinese automakers. Chris Bangle, a former BMW design chief has been hired as the lead designer, joining BMW alum Li Tianyuan at the firm responsible for China's current hot-selling EV: the SU7.
Zeekr had its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange on May 10. At market close, shares traded at $28.17, a 34.57% increase that day.
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