Design

Design royalty: Stefan Sielaff gets inducted into the DESIGNBEST Hall of Fame

Actually, it was only a matter of time. Well, and that time has now come: Head of Design at Zeekr, Stefan Sielaff, is now also part of the DESIGNBEST Hall of Fame for automotive design. And thus in the best company of Walter de Silva and Luc Donckerwolke.

  • Text
    Tom M. Muir
  • Fotos
    Zeekr

Born in the German state of Bavaria, Stefan Sielaff studied at the Design College in his hometown of Munich, followed by a sponsorship to the world-famous Royal College of Art in London, United Kingdom. He then spent the next 35 years of his career in automotive design, beginning with Audi from 1990-2002, followed by a three-year stint as the Head of Interior Design for Mercedes-Benz, returning to Audi in 2006 as Design Director. He served under Walter de Silver in global design for the VW Group from 2013-2015, after which he was appointed Bentley Design Director, a position he held until 2021 before taking up his current role at Geely and Zeekr.

Having worked alongside some of the industry’s most well-respected designers, Stefan Sielaff cites legendary Walter de Silva and Peter Schreier as the most inspirational. Now inducted into the DESIGNBEST Hall of Fame, Stefan Sielaff joins the ranks of other great automotive designers recognised with this accolade, including Walter de Silva, Luc Donckerwolke, and the late Peter Horbury.

"Being inducted into the DESIGNBEST Hall of Fame is an honour I’m incredibly proud of. Car design has always been my passion, and to work every day doing the thing you love is a reward in itself – to do so alongside some of the most revered designers in the automotive industry is a real privilege."
Stefan Sielaff

“I’ve been faced with some incredible challenges throughout my career, but none greater than being tasked with starting a completely new luxury brand that would create a broad range of distinctive, desirable electric vehicles for markets worldwide. That’s exactly what my team and I have done, and I’m delighted with what we’ve achieved”, Stefan Sielaff said.

Appointed Head of Zeekr Design when the brand was established in 2021, Stefan Sielaff has placed design firmly at the heart of Zeekr’s DNA and has been instrumental in making Zeekr already one of the world’s leading EV brands. Leading a young, diverse, and international team of 400 designers, based in state-of-the-art Design Centers in Gothenburg and Shanghai, Stefan Sielaff is responsible for ensuring every Zeekr model truly stands apart from the competition.

His decades of experience in the automotive industry, together with an innate understanding of the luxury segment, have helped to make Zeekr a global success story, present in more than 40 markets worldwide, with deliveries of more than 420,000 vehicles to date in the high-end EV vehicle market.

Under Stefan Sielaff’s leadership, Geely and Zeekr’s diverse, international design team, based in Gothenburg and Shanghai, has created a range of distinctive, desirable EVs – from scratch – in just three years
Under Stefan Sielaff’s leadership, Geely and Zeekr’s diverse, international design team, based in Gothenburg and Shanghai, has created a range of distinctive, desirable EVs – from scratch – in just three years

Zeekr’s unique range of distinctive models featuring SUV, MPV, sedan, and shooting brake body styles, offers customers an EV to suit every lifestyle. Design plays a key role in their appeal, evidenced by the Zeekr 007 receiving the prestigious 2024 Red Dot Design Award for its exceptional product design. At the Car Design News People Awards 2024, Zeekr made history as the only brand to win two awards: Best Interior Design Team, for the Zeekr MIX1, and Best Lighting Design team, for the Zeekr 7X.

The Zeekr 7X is the brand’s latest model and joins the Zeekr 001 and Zeekr X in Europe, with first customer deliveries expected in summer 2025.

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