Rolls-Royce's ex-design chief hired by China limousine maker

[BEIJING] China FAW Group Corp, the carmaker that developed the Red Flag limousine for Chairman Mao Zedong six decades ago, is tapping the former Rolls-Royce design chief for its effort to revive the brand.

Giles Taylor, a design veteran who helped create vehicles such as the Phantom VIII and the Cullinan SUV for the British luxury marque, will lead Red Flag's design team out of Munich, he said on his LinkedIn page. Mr Taylor left his post as Rolls-Royce's director of design earlier this year.

FAW Group, which built the first Hongqi - Chinese for Red Flag - for Chairman Mao in 1958, kicked off a new effort to revive the brand after Xu Liuping took over as chairman of the company last year. Mr Xu aims to boost sales of the Red Flag brand 100 times by 2025 to about 300,000 units a year.

In April, Red Flag unveiled a sleek, two-door electric-car concept called E-Jing GT. The symbolically important brand used by elite Chinese government officials is rolling out more models, including the H5 mid-sized sedan.

Mr Taylor will also lead the design for the FAW auto brand, he said on his page. Before joining Rolls-Royce, Mr Taylor had stints at PSA Peugeot Citroen and Jaguar.

BLOOMBERG