McLaren Automotive has appointed Tobias Suhlmann as its new Chief Design Officer, efficient from September 2023. Suhlmann has a profitable profession in automotive design spanning over 20 years, having labored for a number of famend luxurious manufacturers resembling Bentley, Bugatti, and Aston Martin.
The appointment marks a return to McLaren for Suhlmann, who was beforehand the Chief Designer for Particular Tasks. In that function, he oversaw the design of the McLaren Solus GT single-seat hypercar, which was primarily based on a online game idea.
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As the brand new Chief Design Officer, Suhlmann will likely be primarily based in Surrey, the place he will likely be accountable for main a design workforce that handles each facet of name design. It will embody future ideas, exterior and inside styling, shade and supplies, and personalization of autos for patrons. His function may also contain working intently with clients to create bespoke designs for his or her autos, which is able to then be hand-built within the adjoining McLaren Manufacturing Heart.
Suhlmann started his profession in automotive design in 2005, after graduating with a diploma from Pforzheim College. He labored at Volkswagen earlier than shifting on to grow to be Head of Exterior Design at Bugatti after which at Aston Martin. He subsequently joined McLaren because the Chief Designer for Particular Tasks from October 2020 to September 2021, earlier than turning into Bentley’s Director of Design in his final function earlier than returning to McLaren.
In his new function, Suhlmann will report on to Michael Leiters, the Chief Government Officer of McLaren Automotive.
“We’re delighted to welcome Tobias to the McLaren workforce. He’s a extremely skilled automotive designer with an current understanding of McLaren having beforehand labored on our ground-breaking Solus GT venture. Tobias will play a number one function in growing McLaren’s new design language throughout our growing product portfolio as a part of our Way forward for Efficiency enterprise technique,” mentioned Leiters.
McLaren has been hiring again its earlier executives. Earlier than Suhlmann, Charles Sanderson was employed by the automaker as Chief Technical Officer. Sanderson was McLaren’s head of software program growth earlier than he left for Rivian in 2018.