Audi’s head of exterior design Philipp Römers hops over to Polestar

Philipp Römers, former Head of Exterior Design at Audi, who led the team designing the E-tron and E-tron GT, among others, is hopping over to Polestar, where he will succeed Maximilian Missoni, Polestar’s styling boss for the last six years.

Römers is German, a native of Cologne, and worked as an exterior designer for VW in Wolfsburg from 2005 until 2014. His design was chosen for the seventh generation of the Golf, among other things. In 2014, he moved to Audi to head one of the exterior design studios. “Seven years with a lot of great projects and my personal highlight, the Audi e-tron GT,” Römers said in an interview in 2021.

Taking design with his mother’s milk

Now, he will replace Maximilian Missoni as Head of Design at Polestar, another VW veteran who shaped the young Polestar brand in the last six years. Missoni was born into a family of architects in Austria, so he took design with his mother’s milk.

Last year was challenging for Polestar, as they still only had one car on sale, the Polestar 2. However, Missoni also worked on the Polestar 3 SUV, the Polestar 4 midsize crossover, the Polestar 5 sedan, and the Polestar 6 sports car.

Polestar announced on Wednesday that Missoni would leave the company without providing details. Missoni joined Polestar in 2018 from Volvo Cars, where he was Vice President of Exterior Design and Chief Designer of Exterior for over eight years.

Europe’s only pure EV brand

In a press release, Thomas Ingenlath, Polestar CEO and former Volvo Vice President of Design himself, said: “I thank Max for his leadership and companionship during the inception of Polestar as Europe’s only pure EV brand. Max established innovative design standards that combine aesthetics, luxury, and performance in a way that is truly Polestar. We wish him all the best in the future.”

“At the same time, I am delighted to welcome Philipp to Polestar. Philipp’s modern approach to automotive design and experience from the luxury, performance segment will really support us as we take the next step in developing our model line-up.”

Philipp Römers says: “Polestar is the role model of a design-driven automotive company, and it’s a great honor to take on the responsibility for the Design department. I look forward to working with the creative team to design the next generation of Polestar cars.”