Kia and its parent company, the Hyundai Motor Group, have been snapping up former BMW employees such as designer Karim Habib and BMW M chief engineer Albert Biermann.
Their latest addition is Jochen Paesen who was most recently NIO’s Interior Design Director. Before that, he worked at Volkswagen and crafted the interior of the Amarok.
However, Paesen is best known for his work at BMW where he was the lead designer of the Vision Efficient Dynamics Concept and worked the on the 6-Series (F12/13). He was also the Head of Interior Design for BMW i and the Interior Design Project Leader for the 7-Series (G11/12) and M4 GTS.
In his new role at Kia, Paesen will be Vice President of the Interior Design Group and based out of the Kia Design Center in Namyang, South Korea. He’ll also report to his former colleague Habib who is now Senior Vice President and Head of the Kia Design Center.
Kia says Paesen will oversee future interior designs and will “strengthen the brand’s capabilities in interior design for a range of future electric and electrified vehicles.” The company added his hiring is part of their “wider efforts to capitalize on the design opportunities presented by electrification.”
In a statement, Paesen said “I look forward to contributing to Kia’s ambitious plans for the future with exciting and innovative products that will strengthen its position on the market. Kia has a very talented design and development team and I cannot wait to combine our efforts to strengthen the brand further, and pave a new direction full of innovation and class-leading designs.”
It remains unclear why Paesen left NIO, but the automaker is in serious trouble and used its 2019 Financial Results presentation to reveal there is a “substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.” Given that, it’s not surprising employees are looking for greener pastures.
