Former colleagues and business executives paid tribute to Lotus design chief Peter Horbury, who has died at age 73.

Horbury, most likely greatest recognized for turning round Volvo design, died on Thursday in China, based on a number of sources.

“He was a correct big in automobile design. Everyone knew Peter. There shall be a ache felt all through the business due to this,” Sam Livingstone, director of consultancy Automobile Design Analysis, instructed Automotive Information Europe.

Peter Stevens, former Lotus head of design and now a design advisor, was Horbury’s former tutor on the prestigious Royal Faculty of Artwork in London. He stated Horbury’s abilities prolonged past design.

“Peter’s pure attraction, nice humorousness and modesty had been removed from the brash, ego-driven characters who now populate many automotive boardrooms,” he instructed ANE. “He had a capability to grasp the tradition of all of the makes that he labored on, from Chrysler to Ford, Volvo, Lotus and others, which manifested itself in guiding the long-term design language of these manufacturers.”

Horbury was additionally held in admiration by a youthful technology of designers.

“Peter was one in all only a few designers who maintained momentum all through their complete profession,” Anders Warming, head of design for Rolls-Royce, instructed ANE.

Ford Motor Co. CEO Jim Farley tweeted: “Peter was a exceptional design chief, maybe greatest recognized for utilizing the ability of design to remodel & 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.

Vehicles such because the first-generation Volvo XC90 massive crossover that arrived in 2002 proved standard with clients and revitalized the corporate.

He managed to push by revolutionary design at Volvo by his powers of persuasion over skeptical executives, Lex Kerssemakers, former head of economic operations at Volvo and presently strategic advisor on the firm, stated.

“He was extraordinarily gifted in relation to explaining why you must change a design. That was how he was capable of get such a dramatic change by at Volvo,” Kerssemakers instructed ANE. “He might clarify design higher than anybody.”

In assertion, Volvo stated Horbury “was instrumental in creating the corporate’s design language within the Nineteen Nineties.”

The assertion went on to say: “Peter was an immensely essential particular person for Volvo Vehicles, each as a designer and as an individual. He shall be missed by all of us. Our ideas are together with his household.”

Horbury began his profession in 1974 at Chrysler UK. His first job in practically 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 U.Ok. in 1977 and two years later grew to become a advisor designer to Volvo, based mostly in Sweden. In 1981 he labored for Volvo as a consulting designer based mostly within the Netherlands. In 1986 he was named design director on the MGA consultancy in Coventry, England, earlier than transferring to Volvo in 1991 as 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 government director of design the place he was tasked, together with design head J Mays, with creating a world “One Ford” styling language for the automaker’s next-generation automobiles.

He returned to Volvo in 2009 as vp of design. A yr later the Swedish automaker was offered by Ford to Zhejiang Geely Holding, and 2011 he moved to Geely as senior vp for 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’s head of design by former Bentley design chief Stefan Sielaff in 2021. 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 maker.

“I need to say the Lotus tasks that we have began, I’m going to search out it laborious to allow them to go. They’re so thrilling,” Horbury instructed ANE in 2021.

“You may think about that having the prospect to design a brand new Lotus is one thing I want to stick with a short time longer.”

Douglas A. Bolduc contributed to this report.