MUSICAL CHAIRS
With China pulling from the east, Trump pushing from the west, electri ication sending shocks through the system and Dieselgate causing a minor earthquake in Germany, it’s no wonder 2018 found a lot of key car industry players changing roles
Adrian Hallmark to Bentley
Out – to retirement – went the highly regarded Wolfgang Dürheimer, and in came Adrian Hallmark, previously global strategy director at Jaguar Land Rover. Hallmark launched the Continental GT during an earlier stint at Bentley, which began the company’s transformation. Now he can push on, overseeing the new GT’s range diversiication and navigating Crewe’s move to electriication. Then there’s the eternal headache for premium brands: grow and compromise the exclusivity and handcrafted vibe or stay small and accept the ceiling on proit.
Frank van Meel, promoted from BMW’s M division
He used to run Audi’s Quattro division (now Audi Sport) and took a penchant for all-wheel drive with him to BMW; the latest – glorious – M5 comes with xDrive. Frank had a busy four years at M, where he established a hierarchy that starts with M Performance variants, and then has the full-on M products divided (in some cases) into Competition, CS and CSL versions. His new role is head of BMW’s Total Vehicle Development department, where he’s tasked with ensuring the same DNA runs through every BMW car, regardless of its powertrain type. Markus Flasch, who led development of the new 8-series, replaces him.
David Twohig, from Alpine to Byton
The man who engineered the Alpine A110 for Renault, after highly regarded work on the Zoe and Nissan Qashqai, made the shift to chief automotive engineer for Chinese EV start-up Byton. The draw? A clean sheet of paper and a big budget. Byton was co-founded by Carsten Breitfeld (who led BMW’s i8 project) and engineer Daniel Kirchert (ex-BMW and Ininiti) and looks deadly serious. Byton’s also recruited Chad Harrison, whose wins with Honda in the US included developing the huge-selling Odyssey, and Benoit Jacob, who as BMW’s VP of design led the i3 and i8 teams.
Thomas Ingenlath, from Volvo design to Polestar
How often does a designer get the chance to run an entire brand? Ingenlath had some stellar hits as a designer, including the Skoda Yeti and the current Volvo look, but those who’ve worked with him say he’s always been about the bigger picture. His challenge now is that Polestar is an illdeined sub-brand (rivalling Cupra and DS) that seems unable to decide whether it’s about EVs or performance, or performance EVs.
Its irst car, the 1 – due mid-2019 – will add to the confusion by being a plugin hybrid. Other recruits to Polestar include new R&D chief Hans Pehrson, Volvo’s electric guru who helped make such a success of the new electric London taxi (also part of Geely), and chief test driver Joakim Rydholm, a rally driver and Volvo development driver.
Dieter Zetsche hands Mercedes to Ola Kallenius
If you want an example of how to navigate choppy waters in style, look no further than Dr Z. The walrus-moustached CEO of Daimler has been at the helm for 12 years, during which time the alliance with Chrysler was ended relatively bloodlessly, the AMG brand was spun into a global success, luxury car sales supremacy was wrestled from BMW and the Merc line-up found new niches to expand into. He’s retiring in 2019 and will be replaced by the irst non-German in the post, development chief Ola Kallenius. Job one for the Swede is to implement a plan to split the company into three: cars, commercial vehicles and mobility services. And then ind a few new niches…