Chery Motors appoints new design director | CarAdvice

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Chery Motors appoints new design director

By Anthony Crawford |
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James Hope, former Assistant Chief Designer at GM’s Exterior Design Studio in Russelsheim, Germany, has been appointed to lead a team of 90 designers at Chery Motor’s design centre in Wuhu, China.

James has previously worked for Daimler-Chrysler and Ford – where he is credited with the Ford GT90 Concept, which was seen as the catalyst of Ford’s styling turnaround.

Chery Motors Ltd. is the seventh-largest state-owned car maker in China with a number of sub-brands under its umbrella including Cowin, Riich, Karry and Rely.

In an interview with CarBodyDesign, Hope said: “I have a good feeling about the team – we’re working to bring a level of European quality to the designs.

“I’ve been encouraged by their progress and the products in the pipeline.”


Hope has also been speaking with Italian design houses in order to put in place a specific design language for future Chery vehicles.


 
  • ACD

    Yeah if they wanted to sell cars to Europe, they should get a European designer, suits their tastes. Makes business sense.

  • Sebastian, Style Messiah

    I can just see the meeting at CIA headquarters in Langley Virginia.., ok make sure the new Chery SUV looks like a Pontiac Aztek. We need to do what we can to protect American companies.

  • kazuo

    only seventh largest, i wonder whats the top 5.

    • GA

      in terms of sales figure, Top 3 are Co-funded VW, GM and Nissan. Not sure about 100% state owned brands, But I think this article considered joint venture sTate owned.

  • Guest

    Cherrrrry Baaaaaby

  • nickdl

    I thought Chery already had design directors from other companies…

  • JHP

    err… before they replace the designer, they should replace the engineers.
    i think they are trying to do the same thing as kia, they hired peter schreyer as head of designer, and turned the whole company upside down.
    but with the amount of technology chery have, they’ll never do the same.
    doesn’t matter how good the apple looks from the outside, if inside is all spoiled and rotten, no one would even consider buying em.

    • Lu

      somehow I think the designer is not that good.. The ford is not that good, nor the chery..
      it’s like a European version of Toyota..

      but anyhow.. it’s a start. regarding the technologies, it’s more like a question of whether they should do technologies first, or the designs first…

      the thing is you gotta do both of them sooner or later..now chery has none of them.

      But, as the article stated, it’s state owned. maybe not 100%, but if Chinese government wants to do something… they will make sure of that…
      with money you can buy techs, develop them share them etc…
      and the Chinese government has a very deep pocket..

      and it’s not like they are going to discuss how to spend it, they want something, they just pour in the cash…

  • JHP

    plus, a guy who designed ford gt90?
    that car was complete garbage, in both design and performance.
    wow chery, if you wanna do business, you better go and learn how to hire a proper man.
    just because he’s european, doesn’t mean he’ll be good at designing.
    i mean just look at ssangyong, ssangyong stavic was designed by british guy called ken greenley

    • ??????????

      yep the GT90 was garbage??
      A car made predominately out of the parts bin for Ford Global in 6 months, having a specially built 90deg V12 putting out 720hp and built to showcase design cues and technology that may make its way to everyday cars at a time when hard edges were Avant Garde and you reckon it was garbage in design and performance? Considering it was widley regarded as one of the best “CONCEPT” cars in the Nineties and showed the direction of a lot of trends that followed through to current times.
      A person that can do that without boundaries, will be very handy when given a much tighter brief.

  • Justjamie72

    Does this mean they will ACTUALLY be DESIGNING cars instead of making replicas? That J11 looks suspiciously like an old gen Rav 4….

  • ugh

    American designs of vehicles are not great and do not stay contemporary long.