The whole tamale.Ī lot of designers would have let it rip and tried to be the next Giorgetto Giugiaro, the crucial Italian designer of Ferraris, Alfa Romeos, and Maseratis. Tesla was announcing itself as a real car company with the Model S, so Holzhausen knew that his ideas would define the visual vocabulary of numerous vehicles to follow: SUVs, sports cars, coupés, probably even pickup trucks and vans. Just try to sketch a new Mustang at Ford or Corvette at Chevy. So it's just about the rarest thing imaginable for a car designer to be able to imagine a new vehicle without feeling the explicit burden of the past. Tesla is the first new carmaker to emerge in decades. Holzhausen had a lot of work ahead of him. While a snazzy two-seater was fun to drive and thrilling to look at - more so when you realized you were running only on electrons - people wanted to buy sedans and SUVs. And regardless, Tesla had to start selling a more versatile lineup or vehicles. Roadster production would phase out by 2012. For Holzhausen, going to work at Tesla's earliest design studio in Hawthorne, CA, at SpaceX headquarters, that meant about two years to come up with a new vehicle - a rare opportunity to pen a "clean sheet" design. The Roadster's Lotus underpinnings meant that when those ran out, Tesla would need a new car. The money would fund additional, luxurious, pricey electric vehicles, and that money would provide the funding for the first major endgame: a mass-market vehicle intended to bring long-range electric mobility to the masses. That car would be sold at a high price to early adopters and fans of high-performance, exotic sports cars. The company had to first create an exciting electric car that would change the impressions that EVs were glorified golf carts. Tesla's roadmap, drawn up by Musk, was straightforward. "Tesla was all in," he said in an interview with Business Insider. Musk has said that he and Holzhausen share the same taste, so beyond that critical aspect of the relationship, it boiled down to how serious Musk was about completely remaking the landscape of transportation. A few chats and meetings with Musk proved that the experienced designer and the entrepreneur with a designer's sensibility were on the same page, sharing vision and values.įor Holzhausen, it was Musk's and Tesla's absolute commitment that cinched the deal. A lot of experts figured Tesla would be out of business in a few years, as the cost of launching new vehicles killed the company.īut Holzhausen was frustrated with the traditional industry and ready to leave Mazda. Moribund auto sales had begun a recovery, and other electric-car startups were showing the strains of introducing new technologies most would fail. The company had only a single vehicle to sell - the Lotus-based Roadster - and although it had stoked enthusiasm with all-electric cars that were fast and sexy and would raise $226 million in an IPO shortly after Holzhausen arrived, the carmaker lived on the edge of a knife.Įven though the traditional auto industry had endured its own near-death experience during the financial crisis, by 2010 General Motors had staged its own IPO, returning to the public markets after a government bailout and bankruptcy. When Holzhausen joined Tesla in 2010, memories of a near-bankruptcy in 2008 were still fresh. I recently got the chance to speak with Holzhausen and he shared some details about how he came to join Tesla and what guides his design philosophy. But when it comes to crafting a career and a reputation, they will look Holzhausen. The car designer of the coming decades might admire the legends if the profession's history (and there have been many). Holzhausen gets to envision the future on its own terms - gorgeous electric cars that will someday be able to drive themselves. Many designers of high reputation who are about Holzhausen's age (he's 49) continue to imaging the future within the context of the past. Jaguar's Ian Callum or Aston Martin's Marek Reichman might object, and Luc Donckerwolke is capturing plenty of attention for his work a Hyundai, following a stint designing Lamborghinis.īut the key factor for Holzhausen is that as Tesla rolls out its Model 3 sedan, attacking the mass market, he's witnessing the return on his risky decision to join CEO Elon Musk back when Tesla was selling only one car, the original Roadster. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.
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