Exclusive Q&A - Ingenlath on his second Volvo term: “I bring a hell of a lot of experience in designing cars”

Ahead of Thomas Ingenlath’s second term in charge of Volvo’s design department – effective February 1st 2026 and replacing previous head of design Jeremy Offer who left in August 2025 and interim design boss Nicholas Gronenthal, who is now heading up Volvo design in the Americas – the new chief design officer sat down briefly with CDN to talk exclusively.

Via video, the former Polestar CEO (and ex-Volvo design SVP before that) was quizzed about what lured him back to the Swedish brand. Of course, there is the presence of recently rehired retiree CEO Håkan Samuelsson, who was brought back in April 2025 on a two-year contract and who Ingenlath had worked successfully with during the last ten years at both Volvo and then Polestar, but he also discussed the importance of wider senior management and head of design relationships, a renewed focus on the details and why flush door handles and other less tactile design elements could be in jeopardy under his new watch.

Car Design News: From your point of view, Samuelsson as returning CEO must have been a factor in you deciding to come back to this job?

Thomas Ingenlath: Yes, but less than you think. More important was Volvo, which as a company, due to its history, meaning and values, is an incredible brand – and temptation – to work for. The other thing is the stage where the industry is at. I think it’s an incredibly interesting phase for us as designers. Let’s talk about that in a minute. And the third thing is being a part of the active management and working with it. I’m happy to work – I’ll call it now – with any CEO. It’s great to have Håkan here who I have a great relationship with, that helps. Having said that, it’s not ‘simple harmony’. We have good and strong discussions and I’m happy to have those with whoever is the CEO.

A good and trustful relationship between CEO and designer helps, but one cannot be dependent on the CEO

CDN: So you will report direct to the CEO, is that correct? 

TI: Yeah, that’s correct. And you’re right, a good and trustful relationship between a CEO and a designer helps, but one cannot be dependent on the CEO. That is where it goes wrong if a designer thinks, ‘Oh, I’m the pet designer of the CEO, and he will push things through’. You need good relations with all your colleagues, otherwise it will not work. You have to be good at fighting and arguing for your stuff and need big support to make good design from many other parts of the company. If you depend on the authority of the CEO in these matters, I think that’s skating on very thin ice.

CDN: What do you think you’ve learned since stepping down from the Polestar CEO role in September 2024?

TI: It’s important in general for a head of design to understand how business mechanics work, the financing of projects and how the return of investment is important for a company to be able to afford good design. This is where my previous role as Polestar CEO was certainly a very valuable experience. But I don’t think that you necessarily have to go through a CEO experience to have that ability. Just simply being connected and part of the executive management team helps any designer get a much better understanding – and to not see design as an isolated element.

CDN: Can you explain a bit more? 

TI: You need to be able to argue not just about your aesthetic field, but also the financial aspects of design and explain how things make sense from a business point of view. But one thing about my time as CEO at Polestar, in those seven years working with the markets and being with the sales organisations in those markets, I was much more connected than before [as SVP of design at Volvo]. That is probably the biggest learning [for me] and the biggest difference. That [knowledge] I didn’t have before. To be so much more in dialogue, understanding the needs and difficulties of a sales organisation in markets, I think that is indeed a very valuable experience.

I’m very interested in getting the details right. For a premium company and somebody who wants to be on top of the game, that is a very important attribute

CDN: What do you aim to bring to Volvo design that wasn’t there at the top in the last few years?

TI: Well, you know me. What do I bring? On the one hand I bring a hell of a lot of experience in designing cars. I am a car designer. That is certainly what I know. I know the skills…

CDN: …and arguably Volvo was unique within the industry in the last couple of years in not having an experienced car designer as its head of design, but instead someone with a more industrial / product design background. That was super unusual…

TI: I’m also very much interested in deep-diving into the details. And that counts for everything, not just in making a great exterior shape, but also in interface design, in the teeniest, tiniest graphic elements and the logic of an interface. I’m somebody who’s very interested in getting the details right. And for a premium company and somebody who wants to be on top of the game, I think that is a very important attribute.

CDN: I understand interim design boss Nicholas Gronenthal has now gone to head up Volvo design in the Americas, so will his former ‘head of automotive design’ role now be dropped? Will it just be your role and then individual heads of exterior, interior and CMF design et cetera?

TI: Exactly.

CDN: Do you want to change the structure of that team though, apart from that ‘automotive design’ role being discontinued?

TI: Well, I think it’s about giving strong importance and authority to the heads of exterior, interior and interaction design. I think those leadership functions will be strengthened by this change.

CDN: Sure. But is everyone who’s in those current positions staying in those positions?

TI: [He chuckles slightly] Well, if you have any good recommendations, you can do that offline in a minute!

CDN: Given Volvo is a Chinese-owned brand, and forthcoming Chinese safety legislation means today's electric flush door handles without an appropriate exterior mechanical override face an uncertain future, have you any thoughts about how Volvo design should respond?

TI: I was mentioning we are in a different phase now. I think we are beyond the stage of the naive idea of a fully-digital car – no buttons, everything flush – and getting into a more interesting, more sophisticated era of car design again. We acknowledge the interaction between man and machine being physical and want to offer a little bit more physical interaction. And that’s not just about door handles it’s generally throughout the interior. Of course, we’re not going back to buttons in an ordinary way. But what is a new way? It cannot be just a flush door handle. The safety reason might be one aspect, but as well, the satisfaction that there can be with some kind of physical interaction is a very meaningful topic for car design in the next years.

CDN: I’m sensing your PR associate wants you to stop this brief interview now, but when might you be next available for a face-to-face chat? Maybe we’ll see each other in Goodwood [in the Summer], but hopefully there’ll be a chance before then. I understand the well-used phrase "getting your feet under the table first" in relation to new hires being allowed time to settle before talking to the press, but you kind of know the ‘table’ in this case right? There’s a familiarity.

TI: Yes, but I still have to look at what’s underneath.