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Ingenlath returns as Volvo design boss
Volvo has reappointed Thomas Ingenlath as head of design, effective from February 1st 2026
Ingenlath will be Volvo's chief design officer, a notch up from his prior Volvo role as senior vice president of design.
In the summer of 2025, the ex-Polestar CEO and Volvo design SVP resurfaced as ‘executive design adviser’ for parent group Geely Holding, after leaving his bigger Polestar CEO role in September 2024 after a run of poor financial results (and the premium EV marque he was instrumental in launching in 2017 as a standalone brand).
Then in August 2025 the head of Volvo design Jeremy Offer resigned – a story broken first by Car Design News – citing the prioritising of “spending more time with family and reducing travel between Sweden and the UK.” Nicholas Gronenthal, head of automotive design at Volvo Cars, stepped into the head of design role in an interim capacity.
Thomas Ingenlath will now join the executive management team and lead Volvo Cars’ global design organisation across the product portfolio. “I am delighted to be returning to Volvo Cars. Design is fundamental to what Volvo stands for,” he said in an official statement. “I look forward to working closely with the teams across the company, developing cars that are distinct, relevant and true to the Volvo brand.”
The move represents a 360-degree rotation for the Swedish brand – as Ingenlath is reunited with his former CEO Håkan Samuelsson, who himself returned to the brand last April 2025, replacing Jim Rowan (the CEO who had hired Jeremy Offer).
The Samuelsson-Ingenlath duo who were so pivotal to the turnaround of the brand in the 2010s will be hoping to repeat some of that magic in the second half of the 2020s, as Samuelsson commented: “Design is one of Volvo Cars’ greatest strengths and will continue to differentiate us in shaping the future of premium, electric mobility. Thomas Ingenlath will strengthen our design leadership with his proven experience and vision, ensuring we continue to design cars that reflect our values and resonate with customers around the world.”
Meanwhile Nicholas Gronenthal has been appointed Volvo head of design Americas and CDN will be speaking to Ingenlath very soon to get more information on the big change in Gothenburg.
