Zyciora out, Mauer in (again)

The move represents Mauer’s second stint in the Group’s top design job, having first taken on the role in late 2015 from Walter de Silva who left shortly after the company’s dieselgate scandal broke, amid rumours of impending design budget cuts and management bust-ups. Retaining the role of Porsche head of style throughout that first tenure, Mauer then stepped back to only working on Porsche from April 2020, when the overall VW Group role was briefly filled by Klaus Zyciora.

According to Automotive News Europe, Zyciora is now leaving Volkswagen altogether, rather than shuffling to another role within the automotive giant’s set-up, but it is not yet clear whether he intends to retire, or take on a new work challenge.

The former VW brand design director, who took his wife’s surname a few years back and turned 61 yesterday, will be better known to many for his family name Bischoff, which he used for almost all of his Volkswagen career since joining in 1989 from university. Either way, Zyciora leaves a great legacy. His first major project was the interior of the 1997 Golf Mk4 and he continued through the ranks to oversee many generations of internal combustion-engined VW cars, including three generations of Golf (Mk6-8) as well as the ‘sleeper hit’ Arteon. Since late 2015 he also created the all-electric ID range, whose latest incarnation, the 2022 ID. Buzz, has been widely acclaimed as a successful 21st century heir to the classic T1 minivan legend.

These VW people moves are part of a wider restructure of the VW Group since former Porsche boss Oliver Blume took over as CEO from Herbert Diess in September 2022 and will see the Porsche brand take the lead in design and development within the organisation, Audi handle group sales and quality and the VW brand oversee group production and procurement.

Mauer left Saab to take the top design job at Porsche when Harm Lagaay retired in 2004 and has transformed the brand’s design and fortunes ever since, through cars like the Macan, Cayman Mk2, Cayenne Mk3, Taycan and more. His management style is seen as firm but fair, and had to this to say during his first stint as VW Group design boss.

“We have 12 brands and 12 design leaders so it would be a waste of creativity and expertise if everybody only worked for his or herself, or their brand. Just initiating more communication makes the whole Group strong. I don’t see my job as telling anybody what to do within the brand. It’s more a discussion between colleagues and an exchange of opinions. In the end it’s their responsibility.”

As Mauer’s second stint as VW Group design boss starts in January 2023 he appears to be 60 years young, rather than old and will likely continue in the vein that served him well in his first tenure. “I am convinced that it always helps to be honest and open,” he said back in 2018. “This is a tough business, it’s not kindergarten. But one thing is what you say, and another is how you say it. You can’t avoid saying things but you can say them with respect. Try to separate the content from the person.”

Meanwhile, one thing VW Group’s designers would do well to keep an eye open for – if people that know him well are any guide – is Mauer’s ‘tell’: if he keeps silent and his head tilts to one side, he’s not happy and it might be time to change tack.