How Geely's design chief is mentoring next-gen car stylists

Peter Horbury has worked on countless projects during his 40-plus years as a car designer, ranging from doing the grille, headlights and the bumpers on the Chrysler SIMCA Horizon, which he proudly remembers was the 1979 European car of the year, to creating from scratch the look and feel of Volvo Cars subsidiary Lynk & CO's entire lineup. Horbury, who has been executive vice president of design at Geely Auto since 2011, has also held top jobs with Volvo and Ford's disbanded Premier Automotive Group. He recently spoke with Automotive News Europe Managing Editor Douglas A. Bolduc about the changes his craft have undergone during his decades of service. He also discussed how he is mentoring the next generation of car stylists, and he cheered on the promotions of fellow designers Thomas Ingenlath, who is now CEO at Polestar, and Gerry McGovern, who was recently added to the management board at Jaguar Land Rover.

You have been in the automotive industry as a car designer for more than 40 years. Could you tell us about the biggest changes that you have seen to the craft during this time?  

There has been a huge change in the methods to get to the end results. I remember my first days in Chrysler's European design studio in Whitley, Coventry, [England], where the craftsmen were lying across huge drafting tables and drawing every section. Apart from that, the actual way of getting into design is more or less the same as when I started doing this: you go to an art school or a design college and then start off by doing the door handles on a car. My first job was the grille, headlamps and bumpers of a Chrysler Horizon. I was given the responsibility to design that bit because you never got to do a full car until you were much older. The craft has developed hugely over time. The advent of computers has made an enormous difference. Today we are using tools which were only dreamed of not too long ago.

How much time do you spend mentoring next-generation designers and how much time do you spend actually designing yourself?  

I think that as soon as you gain some seniority you start to be a mentor. We have lots of young designers who have so many fantastic ideas -- many of which are impossible. But as a manager, when you spot a talented designer, then you help by showing him how to get an idea into a more producible form without losing any excitement or any creativity. The lifeblood of any company is to have new, young people who follow ideas and don't know they're impossible. That's critical. As we gain experience we realize that there are 1,000 reason why you can't do that, but a young designer doesn't know that. So, you let that creativity flourish and give people confidence. When it comes to my own design inputs, they are less and less regular because as you move up in an organization, you have got more and more projects to oversee.  

Your successor at Volvo Cars, Thomas Ingenlath, is now CEO at Polestar. Car designers are underrepresented at the top of most auto companies. Can you tell us why that is? And, can Ingenlath help blaze a path for others to follow?  

I really admire that he's done this. It's been tried before [elevating a designer to a top management post] to varying degrees of success. Sometimes I think those designers [promoted to top jobs in the past] became fed up with all the [management] stuff they had to deal with. But I think Thomas is doing a great job bringing a completely new brand to market. I don't know if I could have ever done that because I'm so steeped in the design area. I wish him well. Gerry McGovern is now on the management board at Jaguar Land Rover. I think he will do a fantastic job in maintaining the balance between the commercial, financial and creative sides, because his voice will have a lot of authority in that company as a board member.  

Is a new or different mindset needed to design an electric car?  

The electric car is a great opportunity. I'm pleased to see some companies really grasping that opportunity. There is no longer this great lump of an engine out front. You look at Lucid Motors, Faraday Future and our own Lynk & CO Zero Concept, which we presented at the 2020 Beijing auto show, we are taking advantage of that lack of an engine to move the upper part of the car forward. That creates momentum toward this modern profile of the automobile.

Preserving a design often requires tense negotiations with the manufacturing, engineering and marketing teams. How have you handled those difficult discussions while working all over the world?  

I have worked in the UK, Sweden, Holland, the U.S. and China, and everywhere is different. But there is a similar theme where you have got to be convincing. It's always a compromise somewhere. It has to be a complete team effort because so many different skills are needed. I'm sure members of my team think I have giving in too quickly, but I know the clock is ticking and we only have a few months left to get to the final stage. We cannot risk another round of experimentation. We have to get there. So, everybody has to make some compromises. It's not easy.

Is there a car that you see driving around and you say, "I wish I would have done that one?"  

There are plenty, but this is always changing. I think some design teams are working wonders these days. I'm happy to say that some of them are led by proteges who have been through my department in previous years. But I find it difficult to name one car or one company because I could name a dozen.

My though on current design is that I don't see anything wrong in doing beautiful. I get worried that the ugly stick is being waved about a bit vigorously in some parts of the world. I think we risk heading toward this. In some Japanese designs there is almost a random line and shape pasted onto the car. This cuts up the car into pieces. I think if you look at a beautiful design, like the Jaguar E-Type, there is flow that goes all the way through from front to back -- undisturbed. There may be details drawn into that shape, but they're not disturbing it. What we will be doing at Lotus [which is also control by Geely] is maintaining that idea that it can be a thing of beauty.  

Many Chinese automakers during their early years were prone to copying. One of the things youhave done at Geely and Lynk & Co is create a defining look. How did you get your bosses to truly believe in the ability of a Chinese brand do this?  

There are a couple of reasons why it was like that. One of them is that copying, which we almost see as a crime in the West, is considered an honor in the East. The feeling is that if somebody copied my design, I should be honored. That is a completely different perspective. On the other hand, I think there was a lack of self confidence and a feeling that a brand needed to quickly catch up with the West. What I found at Geely is the idea that if the boss showed me the latest BMW on his iPhone and said, "That is what I want," I would say, "That's theirs. We can do something ourselves." Now there has been a huge gain confidence in the Chinese automotive business that wasn't there 10 years ago. What helped us was the strong sales of cars we designed from scratch.  

What's next for you? You are 71 years old. How long do you want to continue to doing this?

I will gradually wind down from the position I have at the moment and take a more advisory, Although, I must say the Lotus projects that were started, I am going to find it hard to let them go. They are so exciting. This is the very fun part of all our brand. I'm not saying that the others are not fun, but you can imagine that having the chance to design a new Lotus is something I would like to stay with a little while longer.