Volkswagen Design Director Abandoned For Bentley People

Andreas Mindtcurrently head of design at Bentley, will become volkswagen the brand’s design director starting February 1, 2023.

This ends the short reign, which began only in 2020, of Jozef Kaban as head of design for the Volkswagen brand. He will move into the newly created role of Creative Art Director.

Based at the Volkswagen Group’s European Future Center in Potsdam, Germany, Kaban will be responsible for developing “forward-looking mobility solutions for the Volkswagen brand”.

Source said European Automotive News Volkswagen brand CEO Thomas Schäfer was not satisfied with Kaban’s design and decided to move him.

Schäfer is said to have asked Kaban and his team to redesign the upcoming flagship Trinity EV, as well as the ID.Life, a new entry-level EV due around 2025.

Kaban began his working life at Volkswagen before moving to BMW in 2017 to become the company’s chief design officer before moving on to lead Rolls-Royce’s design team. He returned to Volkswagen in mid-2020 to become the design director of the mass car brand.

his replacement Andreas Mindt spent his entire career at Volkswagen. He started working at the automaker in 1996 after graduating from the University of Pforzheim School of Design.

Initial credits include the first generation’s exterior Tiguanand the seventh generation Golf. He became Audi’s head of exterior design in 2014.

In 2021, he was promoted to chief designer at Bentley, where he was tasked with coming up with a new design language for the ultra-luxury brand as the marque transitions to becoming a manufacturer-only brand. for electric vehicles by 2030.

Mindt’s only Bentley design that has seen the light to date is Mulliner Batur coupeOnly 18 of those will be built, with prices starting at £1.65 million ($2.88 million).

Tobias SuhlmannThe British brand’s current head of exterior design, will take over Mindt’s position as head of Bentley’s 50-member design team.

While Sühlmann only joins Bentley in 2021, his previous roles include principal exterior designer for Aston Martin Lagonda from 2018 to 2020 and lead designer on special projects at McLaren from 2020 to 2021.