AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)03/28 Report--

In September last year, Zhongtai announced that Anthony Williams-Kenny, the former global director of the design department of SAIC Technology Center, had joined Zhongtai, and then in October Zhongtai officially released its brand reshaping strategy, which aims to move from "imitation" to independent design. After Anthony, Zhongtai seems to have poached a big shot of car designers. Martin Martin Kropp, the former chief designer of Volkswagen, appeared in a recent race photo released by Zhongtai Motors. It is likely that Martin Crowe has joined Zhongtai, but it has not been officially announced.

Martin Klop, who graduated from the Royal College of Art in London, has nearly 30 years of design experience in the automotive industry, and has served as a global design expert for Volkswagen, responsible for the design and development of the first generation Volkswagen CC, Lanya, Santana, Bora, Jetta and other models. Martin Crowe was responsible for the design of the first-generation Volkswagen CC, which was once called "the most beautiful car of Volkswagen" in the industry.

Prior to Martin Klop, Anthony, former European Design Director of SAIC Group and Global Design Director of MG joined Zhongtai in September 2018 to be responsible for the styling and design of Zhongtai's "Zhimei Chinese car" series. Anthony used to be the global director of the design department of SAIC Technology Center. during the more than 10 years from joining SAIC in 2005 to leaving in 2017, he led and developed the product design studios of Roewe and Mingjue brands. in addition, he also led the design of two generations of SAIC products, such as Roewe RX5, Roewe i6, MG Icon concept cars, MG GS and other models.

When it comes to Zhongtai, the first thing that comes to mind must be words such as "shanzhai" and "Porsche". In the early years, Zhongtai was popular all over the country by virtue of a SR9 similar to Porsche macan. Since then, Zhongtai has fallen in love with "shanzhai". Most of the new cars launched can see the shadow of other brands, but in the past two years, Zhongtai has begun to decline. At last year's Beijing Auto Show, Zhongtai also released the original design concept of "Tao, Natural Wisdom, Wisdom and Tiancheng" and the i-across concept car, coupled with the addition of Anthony, the former SAIC design director, and Martin Klop, the former chief designer of Volkswagen, we can see that Zhongtai is moving closer to the direction of independent design.

Netizens have also joked that Zhongtai can finally put down the tape measure.

Welcome to subscribe to the WeChat public account "Automotive Industry Focus" to get the first-hand insider information on the automotive industry and talk about things in the automotive circle. Welcome to break the news! WeChat ID autoWechat