Car Design Review 9: Stefan Sielaff, Geely

I like the fact that we turned things upside down with our new design building in Gothenburg: we construct the models on the top floor, which is not necessarily the first idea you would have, but it reflects how – fired up by the pandemic – the parameters have changed so rapidly. For example, our Chinese boss and I can walk around the digital model in parallel using virtual reality. The building will transform into a visualisation and virtual reality centre because the necessity of making a big clay show is not necessary now. Clay models have become verification models.

The first and most important thing is to separate Zeekr and Lynk & Co in terms of design philosophy. The Lynk & Co design philosophy is matured and clear, but the Zeekr philosophy didn’t exist. When I arrived in the job in Gothenburg last September 2021, I set up a task force to generate a new identity and design language. We kind of hijacked the empty 7th floor of the new building and quickly assembled a team of 50 people: exteriors, interiors, colour and materials, digital – we worked across the whole spectrum.

You can imagine this was not a ‘9-5 thing’. We had ten weeks to deliver a new vision so we worked days, nights and weekends to deliver this full picture of what Zeekr should be – what should be its design philosophy – and also deliver the design for some of the products that were already in the development. It was a brutal turnaround, but it gave us a fresh start. To be a little bit blunt, the first products from Zeekr were in a way kidnapped from Lynk & Co. They still carry that almost provocative design language, which is young and with complex detailing. Zeekr is positioned higher in the market, so the design language must be more luxurious – not in an opulent way – but technological, modest, quiet and with high quality.

We are in an ongoing hiring process, getting a lot of junior designers in. The project generated eight new department director positions but I did not bring anybody in from the outside – I gave all the trust to this new and young team which was a good message. Some of the department leaders are half my age. It was a risk, but it paid off incredibly well. In Europe, we’re not necessarily looking for classic car designers but for people who’ve worked in the gaming industry – digital natives – that’s a big difference to my background.

The scope is much wider than when I started at Audi as a student in the ’80s. The exterior designers were sketching exteriors and the interior designers were fiddling around with the interior stuff, but it was also not as demanding as it is today. As the focus moves into digital user experience interaction, you need to feel how society is developing and what its demands are.

This only happens in the industries that are faster: we need to observe what the fashion industry is doing. Processes are speeding up and the Chinese certainly want to be first on the market with new ideas. But is speed in consumption really so important? Is it really treating our planet in the right way? I think we are already seeing the dawn of what’s going to happen when we run out of resources. One thing you can say about sustainable materials is that it is starting this shift away from leather. Leather is not always wrong – but vegans and some religious communities do not want animal products in their car interiors.

Synthetic materials and even some recycled materials can work – ocean plastic can be quite attractive to use. It’s like food. In the past, vegetarian, or vegan food was deemed tasteless by many. Now those foods can be so attractive and it’s not a challenge to eat them [he laughs]. It’s the same with materials. The development is fast and then it is just a question of taste. I like this plurality. There is no black and white in anything, even in propulsion technology. For instance, I believe the combustion engine is still going to continue in certain niches.