Franz von Holzhausen, former director of design for Mazda North America, has joined Tesla Motors as the company’s chief designer. In addition to driving the design direction of Tesla Motors in the short term, he is charged with building a world-class design competency at Tesla Motors.
Von Holzhausen will report to Elon Musk, chairman and product architect of Tesla Motors.
“Tesla is about stunning design, combined with breakthrough technology and fantastic service. Those three in combination are what will make us a great company. Franz is joining Tesla with the mission to build the world’s leading automotive design studio,” said Elon.
In his previous role, von Holzhausen led the design and development of concept and production cars for Mazda North America, including the acclaimed Nagare and Furai concept cars. Previously, he served as design manager for General Motors where he worked on the concept and production design of the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Skye, among other projects. He is a graduate of the Art Center College of Design.
“Tesla is changing the paradigm,” said von Holzhausen. “We’re going to turn the world on its ear and create high demand through design. There is a new hunger in the air for automotive design and looking to where automobiles are going in the future. Tesla will capture this through good design and engineering.”
Von Holzhausen is the third recent addition of auto industry veterans to the Tesla Motors management team. In July, Tesla announced the appointment of Mike Donoughe, a former vice president of engineering from Chrysler LLC, as executive vice president of vehicle engineering and manufacturing. Earlier this week, Tesla announced that Deepak Ahuja, a former Ford finance executive, joined Tesla as chief financial officer.