Autocar

STEFAN SIELAFF, GLOBAL DESIGN CHIEF, GEELY

Stefan Sielaff is best known for his work at the Volkswagen Group, leading the design of Bentley and Audi among numerous other roles. In 2021, the German succeeded Peter Horbury as Geely’s global design boss, overseeing all of the Chinese group’s marques.

We caught up with Sielaff in Beijing to talk Zeekr and explore how cars are designed and created differentl­y in China.

Why are so many new brands popping up?

“It’s to do with electric cars. It’s a phenomenon that we saw 100 years ago, when new producers popped up all over the world – but of course not everybody survived. Only the fittest survive when it’s like this, and that’s the case in the Chinese industry as well. There are new brands popping up, and some will be successful and survive and succeed, while some others will fail.”

Are you designing Western cars for China or Chinese cars for the West?

“We have 33 nationalit­ies in our design department, which automatica­lly generates a global attitude. Of course our focus is on China, but we aren’t doing a Chinese car – we do it as a global design and product. This is not so dramatic, because we observe a lot of expectatio­ns of Chinese customers that aren’t so different to [those in] the rest of the world.”

What role does speed play in the developmen­t of Chinese cars?

“It’s not only the speed of design, it’s the speed of the whole developmen­t process. The Zeekr 007 was developed in two years from the first sketch to the finished product. We have everything in the design studio in Gothenburg, Sweden, to build analogue models, but even more important is the software and virtual reality technology we have. Minute by minute, we can send data to engineers for a simultaneo­us exchange and we do VR presentati­ons every week where our CEO can be in China.”

How does that compare with other car makers you have worked at?

“Volkswagen is now on a four-year delivery channel, and they want to accelerate as well. I think it’s sometimes quite difficult for a traditiona­l car maker to do certain processes all of a sudden quicker or cut processes, because it’s the way they have done it for 100 years. The quality proves they are right, as whatever you get from Volkswagen or Audi is top quality, but generally Geely is able to do the same now in a shorter period of time.”