"It's really been ten years," says Peter Schreyer, frowning as if he had to calculate his anniversary using mental arithmetic. "Time has passed so quickly that I sometimes wonder myself". In September, 2006 joined 63 as chief designer Kia Started in far away Korea and turned his back on his previous employer VW. A master of his field, which, according to many experts, the Volkswagen Group should never have let go. There he had drawn the Audi TT, the A2 and also the first “New Beetle”.
The past ten years have been a success story for Kia, which the Bavarian has made a significant contribution to. Sales have tripled, and the Hyundai Group brand has over three million buyers worldwide for its models every year. “The Kia that was known ten years ago no longer exists today,” says Schreyer. "I am always amazed at how quickly the company is developing". For the German himself, the risk of changing to a different cultural area has paid off. He quickly became one of the Kia presidents and is now also responsible for the design of the Hyundai core brand.
Above all, however, his wish was fulfilled to redesign the appearance of an entire model family from scratch. Before moving to Asia, he made a "Spiegel" interview comparing his time in Wolfsburg. “A VW designer works like a comic artist who has to put the twentieth episode of Lucky Luke or Donald Duck on paper. With Kia, I start on a blank sheet with almost no specifications. ” Back then it was certainly a bold statement, but from today's point of view the birth of a global brand that only a few had previously on the shopping list. Schreyer gave the Kia models a striking face, which was characterized above all by the “tiger nose” that 2007 was first seen in a study of a sports coupe and was gradually adopted for all models.
Peter Schreyer describes his philosophy as "the simplicity of the straight line", which means that he largely dispenses with the numerous beads, folds and body curlicues with which many manufacturers vie for attention. “It is important for designers to not only have an eye on cars, but also architecture, art, music, industrial design and much more. All of these things affect us and we influence them, ”he explains, referring to Korean culture. “On the one hand there is the pulsating metropolis of Seoul, on the other hand there is peace and concentration. Both inspire me and our designers. ”Subtleties that the normal driver cannot understand in detail, but which make up the overall impression of a car and make it easy to please.
After Kia's entire model range has been turned inside out, the next generations are already at the start. Does Schreyer have favorite cars that his now large team designed under his direction? He thinks for a moment and calls the small livestyle SUV Soul or the estate version of the Optima, which has also been available in Germany for two months. But he restricts: “It's like children: if you have more than one, you can never say which one you prefer because you love them all. I feel the same way with all the cars that I have designed ”. However, he does reveal a favorite, the study of a four-door sedan called the Kia GT, which was shown at the IAA five years ago, but has not yet made its way to the production model. "This car was a dream project for me and our designers because we got the chance to design a real GT, a car in which you can travel in style."
The next tasks are already waiting for the star designer, who collects as many airline miles as only a politician. He commutes between the Kia studios in Irvine, Frankfurt or Namyang near Seoul in California, but still lives in Ingolstadt. The focus for him is the development of a small SUV for both brands, but also the expansion of the new luxury brand Genesis, which wants to take on the luxury sedans from southern Germany. And of course the usual routine of every sheet metal artist in the service of a car company, the upcoming model updates. But Peter Schreyer has a motto: "It is important that every change always means an improvement and that we do not only change something so that it looks different." (Peter Maahn / SP-X)