Ex-Porsche Designer to Refine Chinese Car Brand
Chinese automaker Chery wants to style its cars like the Germans and hopes former Porsche designer Hakan Saracoglu will be able to help.
One of several designers from European car companies to be wooed in recent years, Saracoglu helped design Porsche models including the 918 Spyder, Boxster and Cayman. Before that, he worked with Ford and helped design models including the Focus and Mondeo — called the Fusion in North America. Saracoglu joined Chery as design director in October.
It isn’t clear how much Saracoglu was offered to join Chery, but he said “I cannot comment on that. Let’s say I’m not unhappy.” According to Sanford C. Bernstein & Co, foreign auto engineers in China earn as much as three times what they would in Europe or North America.
Chery is best known for building the QQ minicar, but Saracoglu aims to change that.
“Chery is not just QQ, we’re going to change that. The company is redefining itself. Chery is standing for value, for design and gaining customer confidence. That’s where we want to go,” he said to Bloomberg.
Outside its name brand, Chery also has a 50-50 joint venture to produce models in China for Jaguar Land Rover, as well as owning startup Qoros Auto Co.
[Source: Automotive News]
Luke is an energetic automotive journalist who spends his time covering industry news and crawling the internet for the latest breaking story. When he isn't in the office, Luke can be found obsessively browsing used car listings, drinking scotch at his favorite bar and dreaming of what to drive next, though the list grows a lot faster than his bank account. He's always on <A title="@lukevandezande on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/lukevandezande">Twitter</A> looking for a good car conversation. Find Luke on <A title="@lukevandezande on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/lukevandezande">Twitter</A> and <A title="Luke on Google+" href="http://plus.google.com/112531385961538774338?rel=author">Google+</A>.
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