BMW poaches Skoda's chief designer Kaban after in-house departures
[FRANKFURT] BMW has appointed 44-year-old Slovakian Jozef Kaban, to head up design at its main BMW brand, bringing the group's auto styling team back up to strength after suffering a string of departures.
Vehicle design has grown in importance as a differentiating factor for traditional carmakers who are increasingy under threat from start-up brands, and as stricter pollution rules make it harder to push engine horsepower as a key selling point.
BMW said Mr Kaban will replace Karim Habib who left the company"of his own accord," without elaborating further. BMW also promoted Domagoj Dukec to head the design for BMW's "i" and "M"subbrands, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
Mr Kaban will report to Adrian van Hooydonk, who remains design chief at BMW Group, which also owns the Rolls-Royce and Mini brands.
BMW's design department has suffered a string of defections. Anders Warming, the former head of design at Mini, left to join Borgward, while Benoit Jacob who worked as a designer at "i"quit to join Future Mobility Corp. Richard Kim, a former senior automotive designer at BMW who helped shape the i3 production car, now works as Vice President of Design at electric supercar firm Faraday Future.
REUTERS
BT is now on Telegram!
For daily updates on weekdays and specially selected content for the weekend. Subscribe to t.me/BizTimes
Transport & Logistics
Porsche posts Q1 profit drop on ramp-up costs
Air China orders homegrown C919s in challenge to jet duopoly
Huawei’s smart car tech offers automakers route to China sales
Sri Lanka to hand management of China-built airport to India, Russia companies
Tesla’s plan for affordable cars takes page from Detroit rivals
Toyota is investing US$1.4 billion to build another all-electric SUV in US