Peter Schreyer, the chief designer for Kia, has been named president of design for the Hyundai-Kia group.
Schreyer reportedly will be one of three presidents at the Korean automotive group and its first non-Korean president.
Schreyer joined Kia in 2006 from Audi, where he led the design of the TT sports coupe.
Under his direction, nearly all of Kia’s lineup has been redesigned. The brand’s cars now wear a signature “tiger nose” tabbed grille for a unified family look and have sweeping, aerodynamic sheetmetal.
In a February 2009 interview with WardsAuto, Schreyer, who was then in the middle of a complete product revision to inject “more life or soul” into the brand’s vehicles, described Kia’s prior design language as “a little bit neutral.
“There weren’t so many strong characters, and you didn’t really recognize the cars on the road,” he said at the time. Schreyer wanted a coordinated design that was instantly recognizable, citing BMW as a guidepost.
The Hyundai-Kia group, whose sales have been on a hot streak for the better part of a decade, targeted 7 million global sales for this year. U.S. deliveries through November were 17.3% ahead of like-2011, topping the 500,000-unit mark for the first time ever last month, WardsAuto data shows.
