According to Chosun South Korean media, Peter Schreyer, president of Hyundai Motor Group’s design management division, who led the design innovation of Hyundai and Kia will resign this year. According to the news source, Albert Biermann, president of Hyundai Motor Group’s R&D division will follow.
Hyundai Motor Group is planning to carry out the reshuffle of its presidents this week. It is expected that there will be an executive reshuffle earlier next week.
First of all, Schreyer will step down. Schreyer, who joined the Hyundai Motor Group in 2006, is responsible for raising the design of Hyundai Motor, Genesis and Kia to a world-class level.
He is considered one of the ‘World’s Top 3 Automobile Designers’ and his signature ‘Tiger Nose’ radiator grille design has grown Kia into a global brand. If Schreyer resigns, the role of Sang Yup Lee, current Senior Vice President of Design Center, is expected to increase.
The information also talks about Albert Biermann and the possibility of his resignation, but as a successor has not been decided, it has not been decided whether or not to resign. Since Biermann joined the company, Hyundai Motor Group has significantly improved its product performance. Hyundai Motor Company’s high-performance brand ‘N’ is also Biermann’s work.
Our personal opinion is that Schreyer thing was expected, as he’s appareances have progressively decreased but we are pretty sure that Biermann at least will stay during 2022 and maybe resign after the launch of first N performance all-electric model, the IONIQ 5 N.
The reason for this changes is that Hyundai Motor Group plans to hire new executives to infuse youthful vitality in the process of preparing for the future mobility era.
This bad news.
i can kind of understand with Schreyer as he has had a nice long and rewarding career for the past 16 years….but biermann just got hire a few years ago and has done so much making HKG vehicles better vehicles. whether its standalone N models or just overall improvements to every vehicles driving dynamics, biermann is a gem for them. should get at least another 5 years before he retires or something
Both of them has totally changed Kia from what they were to now!!!
I don not know how I feel about this. He changed how Kia was from bad to amazing. This could go either way to be honest.
If youthful vitality is what Hyundai Motor Group is after, look no further than my local McD’s for inspiration: no in-person counter attendant, two of the four kiosks not working, ice cream machine out-of-service, OJ machine broken, high-turover of staff and lack of interest by youth to want to work. One look around the dining room and you see young adults engaged in their phone while one Asian senior citizen tends to the mopping/floor/drive-thru. Good-luck selling mobility when we can’t solve the most basic aspect of tending to a customer.