Former colleagues and trade executives paid tribute to Lotus design chief Peter Horbury, who has died at age 73.
Horbury, in all probability finest recognized for turning round Volvo design, died on Thursday in China, in response to a number of sources.
“He was a correct big in automobile design. All people knew Peter. There will likely be a ache felt all through the trade due to this,” Sam Livingstone, who’s director of consultancy Automobile Design Analysis, informed Automotive Information Europe.
“Peter was certainly one of only a few designers who maintained momentum all through their entire profession,” Rolls-Royce design boss Anders Warming, informed ANE.
Ford CEO Jim Farley tweeted: “Peter was a exceptional design chief, maybe finest recognized for utilizing the facility of design to rework & modernize Volvo globally.”
At Volvo, the British designer oversaw the transition from the Swedish automaker’s long-standing boxy shapes to include the now-famous “shoulders” under the window line that retained the practicality however broke up the boxiness.
Automobiles such because the first-generation XC90 giant SUV that arrived in 2002 proved in style with prospects and revitalized the corporate.
Horbury pushed by revolutionary design at Volvo by his powers of persuasion over skeptical executives, a former colleague stated.
“He was extraordinarily gifted with regards to explaining why it’s best to change a design. That was how he was in a position to get such a dramatic change by at Volvo,” the previous colleague informed ANE. “He might clarify design higher than anybody.”
Horbury began his profession in 1974 at Chrysler UK. His first job in almost a half century of working in automotive was designing the grille, headlamps and bumpers of the Chrysler SIMCA Horizon small hatchback, which went onto to win the 1979 European Automobile of the 12 months award
He moved to Ford UK in 1977 and two years later grew to become a advisor designer to Volvo, primarily based in Sweden. In 1981 he labored for Volvo as a advisor designer primarily based within the Netherlands. In 1986 he was named design director on the MGA consultancy in Coventry, England, earlier than shifting to Volvo in 1991 as its design director.
In 2002, Horbury grew to become design head of Ford’s Premier Automotive Group, which included Volvo in addition to Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover.
Two years later he moved to Detroit as Ford’s govt director of design the place he was tasked, together with design head J Mays, with creating a worldwide “One Ford” styling theme for the automaker’s next-generation automobiles.
He returned to Volvo in 2009 as vp of design. A yr later the Swedish automaker was bought by Ford to Zhejiang Geely Holding, and 2011 he moved to the Geely as senior vp design. His successor at Volvo was Thomas Ingenlath, who’s now CEO at Geely subsidiary Polestar.
At Geely, Horbury oversaw the design of Geely’s Lynk & CO model.
He was changed as Geely head of design by former Bentley design chief Stefan Sielaff in 2021, however regardless of promising to take a step again Horbury stayed on to information Lotus design following Geely’s takeover of the British sports activities automobile model.
“I need to say the Lotus tasks that we have began, I’m going to seek out it onerous to allow them to go. They’re so thrilling,” Horbury informed ANE in 2021.
“You’ll be able to think about that having the prospect to design a brand new Lotus is one thing I wish to stick with a short time longer.”
Douglas A. Bolduc contributed