The Volkswagen brand’s new head of design, Andreas Mindt, doesn’t look quite like you’d expect a designer to look. Although he wears well-tailored suits, the affectations you associated with the profession (scarves, thick glasses, intimidatingly avant-garde accessories) are nowhere to be found. Instead, his dress suggests a disarming friendliness, that he hopes to bring to the vehicles he designs for the brand.
An early appointment by new VW Group CEO, Oliver Blume, Mindt was brought in from Bentley as part of efforts to fix the issues that were starting to pile up for the European giant. And his revolutionary plan to fix VW design is simply to make nice cars.
That may not sound radical, but it’s a stark departure from his predecessor’s mission, he told Motor Trend recently. Vehicles like the ID.4 and the upcoming ID.7 were designed to be obviously electric and a little bit futuristic. However, the short hoods and long windshields haven’t really landed with customers, and Mindt believes that’s because they were designed for early adopters, not mass market audiences.
“EVs are now 15 percent of the global market, and more than 50 percent of the market in China,” said Mindt. “This is not an early adopter business anymore.”
Read: Designing Hypercars Is A Breeze Compared To Small Cars Says VW’s New Design Boss
His solution is to “just calm down.” Mindt said that since VW’s electric vehicles are now being designed to appeal to the same customers whose last vehicle featured an internal combustion engine, they can use those same design principles in their EVS. The goal now is to “just make it good, make it fit, and it will work.”
The first evidence of this approach is the ID.2all concept. Scheduled to go on sale in 2026, the design was the result of an emergency course correction after Blume expressed his dissatisfaction with the ID. Life concept, a boxy, futuristic concept car that was set to become the ID.2.
By contrast, the ID.2all has a much more conventional hatchback shape, despite its slightly futuristic headlights. And Mindt said that the concept is indicative of what he’s planning for the rest of the lineup.
“I want to get this kind of stance in the whole portfolio,” said Mindt. “There was a trend for short hoods and long windshields; everyone believed this should be the design for electric cars, but it is not.”
Ultimately, the designer says that he wants VW to be more like it was when he joined it in the ’90s. At the time, it was noted for making cars that felt more expensive than they were, something it has failed to deliver on lately.
“This is the secret sauce. The car is better than you expect, and you start to love it. Our aim is to be the love brand,” said Mindt. “We can make nice cars for nice people.”
