“We have to be bold again” – Nissan Design Europe boss Arroba speaks out

Nissan Design Europe (NDE) vice president Giovanny Arroba has been leading the Japanese brand’s studio in London for nearly a year, so CDN was happy to accept the invite of an exclusive face-to-face chat with the man tasked with filling the figuratively (and literally) large shoes of Matthew Weaver, since the Brit left for Japan to take on the senior design director role at Global Nissan in April 2025.

Arroba, a 49-year-old ‘Nissan lifer’, has completed long stints in USA, Japan and Europe – including previous roles at NDE between 2014-2018 – but began his career at Nissan Design America (NDA) in 2000 as an exterior designer.

Growing up ten minutes away from ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena was a serendipitous starting point. After receiving an open day tour there during his junior high school days (and seeing a copy of Car Styling magazine) Arroba was hooked. Developing a portfolio to become a car designer then became his overriding goal. The approach paid off: he secured a place at ArtCenter in the late 90s – where he was taught by legends including Dave Marek – and the easy commute from his parental home “saved a lot of money.”

Early hits include the winning exterior designs for the 2003 Nissan Titan Mk1, 2004 Pathfinder Armada Mk1 and the stunning 2009 Infiniti Essence concept car. More recently, he’s overseen the 2020 Nissan Ariya production vehicle, 2021 Max-Out, Chill-Out and Surf-Out concept trio, the 2023 Hyper concept quintet and the 2026 Micra Mk6 and Leaf Mk3 production models.

Car Design News caught up with the soft-spoken and considered Californian to discuss everything from new brand building and positioning, learning from ‘China speed’ and why he’s not a fan of a certain Japanese taxi…

Car Design News: At the 2025 Japan Mobility Show (JMS), beyond the new production Leaf Mk3 and Elgrand Mk4, there were no ‘wow’ concepts like in previous Tokyo shows. Are budgets tightening?

Giovanny Arroba: Before arriving in London, I was in Japan for seven years and heavily involved in the previous 2023 JMS, which had all our ‘Hyper’ concepts [some of which were digital]. We were conscious in 2023 to show a vision and at the 2025 Tokyo event the materialisation of that vision. Maybe in 2026 we’ll show a bunch of far-out concepts.

CDN: Does making digital-only concepts make it harder to motivate your team as they don’t get the same kind of public focus and show feedback?

GA: Concept cars are great, but we want to make the real deal. We’ve got great nameplates in the pipeline that keep our vision focused. Sometimes it’s an amazing sketch, sometimes a fantastic concept, but ultimately, what’s kept me in this business is seeing those ideas on the road. If we can shape those experiences, that’s the most exciting part.

CDN: How is ‘China speed’ affecting your everyday? Are you being asked to design a car in two years now rather than six?

GA: I think it’s exciting. Four years is now too long. The trend cycles are happening much faster.

CDN: In what areas can you speed up?

GA: From a design perspective, we’re super agile. Some of the great resources of Nissan are places like here in London, the studio in Shanghai and our new smaller footprint in the US, which is going to be extremely agile too. We can [still] dream and propose lots of ideas. Sometimes we’re designing the car before the product plan. It’s in manufacturing and R&D where we need to condense and speed up. And artificial intelligence (AI) is a tricky thing in the design world. 

CDN: I didn’t want to bring up AI just yet, but you have!

GA: We use AI more as a rendering tool. If we make a hot sketch, AI can bring it to life very fast. The creative idea is still pure because it’s a designer’s gut instinct. But put it through an AI process and it becomes a 3D animation in a minute. 

If we identify the concept early, we can get to market faster and be more competitive

And to get an executive, product planning team or even a customer test group excited about a future car, a ‘turning’ 3D sketch versus a static one communicates a different picture; if you go to a customer clinic and show them a sketch, they might think a reflection is a feature line. Then we build a digital model and make a clay. 

We still use clay because I believe that process is super important to get the human touch. What you see on screen is not the same. But if we can identify the concept and idea early, the faster we can get to market and the more competitive we can be.

CDN: How does your team now mainly work? Do you rein in the ones who are too digital or coax those who are overly analogue to be more digital?

GA: It’s about fuelling the creativity. And that could be by any means. Some love to sketch in 3D and Blender. I still sketch on pen and paper and scan it in, which is fine too. Whatever it takes to communicate the idea, that’s the most important thing. The idea should represent the vision and spirit of whatever you’re trying to shape. 

CDN: What’s on your design wish list for 2026?

GA: My priority is nailing these future cars and selling a lot of them. Beyond that I think we have to be impactful and bold again. When I started at the company [in 2000] we had the Nissan Revival Plan with investment to reinvent and redefine the brand globally.

CDN: Arguably that is no longer the situation design-wise, in terms of what we can see and the public can buy.

GA: It’s true. But I think there are a lot of cars coming soon which will rekindle that.

CDN: Can you tantalise us with some hints?

GA: One of the things that’s important about NDE is that both the Qashqai and Juke were born here and were super disruptive in the marketplace. They define their segments still and now is the time to do that again. The whole C-segment crossover formula is saturated and mature. Everybody’s trying to emulate the Qashqai’s success, but where’s the next boundary we’re going to ‘crossover’ into? My job is to influence not only regionally but globally, to get that disruption back.

CDN: What kind of designers do you want to help in that quest?

GA: The most creative and crazy.

CDN: They can’t all be ‘crazy’ though surely?


GA: Despite all these Chinese brands, one asset they don’t have is heritage. You can see it in the new Micra, and I think there is a yearning for the romance of the automobile, especially as electrification comes into play. But regardless of the powertrain, how can we touch people’s hearts? EVs don’t have to be cold or a ‘smartphone on wheels’, even if perhaps you want their ease of use and connectivity to be like that. I think we’ll see a shift to more tactile interiors. And with the Micra, a bit more charm and wit – even a bit ‘cheeky’. Being in the UK I can use these words now! We need to give the car a soul.

CDN: With so many new electrified Chinese cars undercutting on price does Nissan have to become more value-led, more stripped out?


GA: Nissan has always been influenced by bringing a sense of performance and ‘high design’ to a lot of people. We’re not exclusive. The GT-R could beat a Porsche 911, but not at supercar prices. Nissan sits at the core of the market.

I’d like to get [these designers] more involved in advertising campaigns — the storytelling and communication of the product

CDN: What do you do for fun away from work?

GA: I love to travel and drive classic cars. I wanted an R34 [Nissan Skyline Mk10] when I was in Japan and for a moment had an R32 [Mk8] which was fantastic. But it broke down on the way to work and my wife said, ‘you’d better sell that right away’.

CDN: Do you own any classic cars now?

GA: I’ve had a gold Alfa Romeo Montreal for seven years, bought in London.

CDN: Do you have a Nissan ‘daily driver’ as well?

GA: I have an Ariya Nismo. It’s fun to drive a car that you worked on. I didn’t work on the Nismo version but the wider Ariya project.

CDN: Having lived with the Ariya what would you change about it?

GA: We were so engrossed in the seamlessness of technology that we put a lot of things in the screen. But now I wish the Ariya had more buttons. EVs and cars in general shouldn’t become just [about] a tablet. There’s still a need for the human touch, so I want to bring that back.

CDN: What car did you wish you’d designed?

GA: The Lamborghini Miura or Ferrari Daytona. 

CDN: …and one you’re glad you didn’t?

GA: [Sigh] I don’t really want to be quoted criticising another person’s design they spent so much love and energy on, but Toyota had an amazing opportunity to do something cool for the 2020 Olympics. However, its JPN Taxi is an ugly car. They’re all over Tokyo. That one I can throw under the bus.

CDN: Is there anything else you want to talk about?


GA: I was really inspired in Japan by our little gallery at the Ginza Crossing in Tokyo (and another one in Yokohama). These are places where we can curate the brand and how we want it to resonate. If we were able to have a little brand temple here, this London location would be fantastic. I would love to carve out a little space when we launch the new Micra, Leaf or Juke. 

And because design is involved from the beginning with the vision, inspiration, narrative and concepts, another aspect where I think we can contribute is in the advertising campaigns. I’d like to get this place and these guys more involved in the storytelling and communication of the product all the way through. Sometimes we have this role and then it gets handed over to somebody outside the company to tell. Now is the time to build the brand.