NIO appoints Oliver Samson as Director of Exteriors

Oliver Samson has been hired by NIO as their new director of exterior design, which will see him move from California back to his native Germany. He leaves a Creative Director role at Daimler AG’s Advanced Design Studio, which he took up in 2014 after senior roles at their Sindelfingen studio.

Samson, a Pforzheim alumnus with prior experience at Hyundai and Kia, will now lead exterior design development at NIO’s design studio in Munich, answering to Design VP Kris Tomasson. His predecessor, Juho Suh, now heads up NIO’s Automotive Design Studio in Shanghai.