Tesla hires away Mazda’s chief designer

Mazda's top designer to become its new Design Director and head up a team of in-house designers at a new studio. Franz von Holzhausen is the current rock star of the automobile design world, having been the creative force behind the last few year's worth of Mazda concepts that include the Nagare and Furai, as well as overseeing the design of all Mazda production vehicles in North America since February 2005. von Holzhausen has also been a designer at both General Motors and Volkswagen.

Tesla’s leadership has been looking for a lead designer for its next two vehicles, wanting to give the company’s more prolifically produced cars a unique look. That requires in-house design - the Roadster was designed by Lotus - and von Holzhausen was reportedly the company’s first choice. He resigned from Mazda on Thursday of last week according to a report by Car Design News, and is already tasked with setting up a complete design team.