Stefan Sielaff

Germany car designer
Stefan Sielaff
Born1962
Munich, Germany
OccupationCar designer

Stefan Sielaff (born 1962 in Munich) is a German car designer with Geely Auto Group. He has spent the majority of his career with Audi, with a short three-year break with Mercedes-Benz.

Career

Sielaff initially joined Audi in 1984 as a student intern. He was awarded an Audi scholarship and went to London to study vehicle design at the Royal College of Art (RCA)[1] where he was awarded the MDes (RCA) qualification. While at the RCA he won the Triplex prize for his ACID (Advanced Concept: Induction Drive)[2] three-wheeler project which bridged the gap between motorcycle and sports car and included innovative glazing.[3]

Immediately upon completing his course in 1990 he returned to Audi where he worked on interiors at Audi's Ingolstadt headquarters before moving to Audi and Volkswagen interiors in Munich. In 1995 he moved to Sitges, Spain before returning to Munich in 1997 to run the Audi Design Centre and then quickly moved to Ingolstadt to become head of interior design of Audi.[4]

In 2003 Sielaff moved to rival Mercedes-Benz to become the design director of Interior Competence Center in Sindelfingen.[5] He returned to Audi in 2006 to be head of Audi Design under Walter de Silva[6] to replace retiring head Gerhard Pfefferle.[7]

Audi A1

In September 2021 Sielaff was appointed as Vice President of Global Design at Geely Auto. He will be based in Gothenburg, Sweden.[8][9]

Significant designs

  • Audi Quattro Spyder sports car study (1991)
  • Audi A1 (2010)[10]
  • Audi A7 (2010)[11]
  • Zeekr 009 (2022)[12]

Other roles

Sielaff is a member of the Advisory Board of the School of Textiles & Design at Reutlingen University.[13]

References

  1. ^ Bentley Media 2018
  2. ^ Royal College of Art 1990 Archived 2011-07-21 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Autocar & Motor vol 185 1990
  4. ^ bnet March 2007
  5. ^ Automotive News 20 June 2005
  6. ^ Automotive News 19 October 2009
  7. ^ Automotive News 9 January 2006
  8. ^ Reuters 6 Sept 2021
  9. ^ AutoIndustriya.com 8 Sept 2021
  10. ^ Euro Car News
  11. ^ Autocar 27 July 2010
  12. ^ https://www.carscoops.com/2022/11/zeekr-009-is-an-electric-luxury-minivan-with-536-hp-and-511-miles-of-range/ [bare URL]
  13. ^ Reutlingen University