Exclusive: Volvo’s Offer resigns after Ingenlath resurfaces

Volvo’s head of design Jeremy Offer has left Volvo just months after ex-Polestar CEO and Volvo head of design Thomas Ingenlath resurfaced as ‘executive design adviser’ at Geely Holding, the parent group of both brands. The news of Offer leaving reached Car Design News after it chased Volvo for comment on the potential impact of Ingenlath’s appointment for the organisation’s design structure; and after learning that Ingenlath had been spotted by insiders on the premises of one of the Chinese automotive giant’s Gothenburg outposts in the last two months.

An official statement was issued by Volvo to CDN last night: “Jeremy Offer has decided to step down from his role as head of design for Volvo Cars to prioritise spending more time with family and reduce travel between Sweden and the UK. Nicholas Gronenthal, currently head of automotive design at Volvo Cars, will step into the role as head of design in an interim capacity.”

Offer joined the Swedish brand as a key hire of former Volvo CEO Jim Rowan. Both Brits were from outside of the car industry – Offer was previously at ailing-then-failing van EV start-up Arrival and Rowan from Dyson – but Rowan left his post at Volvo at the end of March 2025 (only to return to the wider Chinese group, this time as a member of the Group Lotus board a few months later).

There is no indication that Ingenlath is interested in taking up his previous role of Volvo head of design, but his rejoining the wider Geely group and Rowan’s departure as CEO is unlikely to have made Offer’s job feel more comfortable.

Another Volvo returnee and repeat CEO Håkan Samuelsson – who was coaxed out of retirement to replace Rowan on April 1st 2025 – previously worked very closely with Ingenlath at Volvo, when Ingenlath was head of design and Samuelsson CEO, before promoting him to sister brand Polestar CEO back in 2017. Samuelsson seems instrumental in bringing Ingenlath back into the fold. According to a report in Automotive News Europe, Samuelsson has suggested Ingenlath will be a valuable mentor for the current design team’s line-up. “I think he will coach them,” Samuelsson is quoted in ANE, “I talk to him a lot to hear his opinion. He can give me some tips also on what I should do – or not do”.

It was only in September 2024 that Ingenlath left his role at the Swedish premium EV brand he helped launch in 2017 as a standalone brand, after a run of poor financial results. Ingenlath’s stepping down as Polestar CEO last year was seen then by some industry observers as ‘proof’ that designers don’t always have the wider skillsets required to succeed in the most senior automotive management roles, although our in-depth feature – first published in Car Design Review 11 after this departure – suggested otherwise and backed his approach.

The speed of the Ingenlath’s return has surprised many though. His new role – which seems closest to Peter Horbury’s last role at Geely, that of ‘senior vice president, executive advisor, design’, right up until his untimely death in the summer of 2023 – could see Ingenlath advising on many of the Group’s many high-profile brands, so CDN also asked how Ingenlath’s new job will work in relation to current Geely Auto group VP of global design, Stefan Sielaff.

CDN received this statement from a Geely Europe spokesperson early this morning: “Ingenlath’s appointment was only announced internally as it is an advisory role and not a line organisation role. It means he will assist and counsel the different design organisations in the Geely Holding subsidiaries as needed. There is no unified design organisation across the brands, and Stefan Sielaff is VP in the Geely Auto group with responsibility for Zeekr and Lynk & Co primarily, with no connection to Volvo, Polestar or Lotus.”