Nissan promotes Latin America design boss
John Sahs has been bumped up from chief designer to design director at Nissan Latin America
Nissan has promoted the head of its Latin America studio to the role of design director. John Sahs previously served as chief designer at the site in Sao Paulo, fondly referred to as ‘The Box’, which he has led since its inception in 2018.
Reflecting on his time at Nissan so far, and particularly in South America, Sahs told Car Design News that the job has required a hands-on approach to various roles. These have ranged from bringing Nissan’s design DNA to the region, to supporting market communications, product planning, engineering and design.
“In my new role as design director, I will continue with these efforts by creating more opportunities with potential partners and realising new projects that will help support our Ambition 2030 vision to empower mobility and beyond in the South America region,” Sahs notes, highlighting the importance of the brand’s presence in the region more generally.
”South America is an important growing market for Nissan,” he says, “and with our design studio strategically placed in Sao Paulo, working with our global design studios around the world, we will deliver designs and innovation to enrich the experience of our customers’ lives.”
Since 2020 the studio has also offered design services for other fields, including product design, spatial design, branding, visual/animation communication and new mobility, both for internal and external collaborative projects.
By working with our global design studios, we will deliver designs that enrich the customer experience
A graduate of ArtCenter College of Design in both Transportation and Industrial and Product design courses, Sahs began his career in automotive with internships at Chrysler and Mitsubishi before moving over to the Mercedes Benz advanced design centre in Japan. It was here where he worked on projects such as the 1997 Maybach show car, which made a splash at the Tokyo motor show that year.
He would spend more than seven years in exterior and interior design at Mercedes before beginning his long-running stint at Nissan, joining the global design headquarters in 2000 and leaving in 2011. After stints with a creative agency and EV start-up, Sahs returned to Nissan in 2012 – this time in San Diego – before moving over to Brazil in 2018. As of January 2023, he is now the design director for Nissan do Brasil.
Sahs also had a hand in designing the studio in Sao Paulo, which aims to merge Latin American and Japanese culture and is built with an open format to encourage collaboration – this is most evident with the lounge and ‘creative zone’. Productivity aside, the spot offers an element of calm with a Japanese zen garden and an engawa, a terrace that blends indoor-outdoor living spaces. The studio works in conjunction with other outposts in Japan, London, Shanghai and San Diego. Alfonso Albaisa remains global SVP of design at Nissan.
In other job news, Kia recently promoted head of global design, Karim Habib, to executive vice president, while Michael Mauer has come in to replace Klaus Zyciora at Volkswagen.