GM Europe brings back its former design chief

General Motors’ European division has announced the return of its former design chief, Briton Mark Adams, who held the post between 2007 and 2012. The decision is part of the North American giant’s plans to drive synergies between Buick and Opel in order to better amortize fixed costs. The CEO of Opel, Karl-Thomas Neumann, stated: “This move will provide greater emphasis on the joint strategies of both brands”.

Adams will thus become vice president and head of the department based in Germany, as well as the main “champion” of the future of Buick/Opel and of its design language. This insistence from the North American group responds to the persistent search for a solution to the “most complicated Rubik’s Cube”, as GM CEO Dan Akerson described the task at hand: tightening the ties between these two manufacturers even further.

Although there are currently many Buick products, from both the American and Chinese subsidiaries, and Opel that share a platform, there are still points where they differ too much in the eyes of GM’s leadership. Detroit wants the costs of developing these bases and architectures in Germany to be better leveraged and more efficiently. In fact, Akerson admitted this month that they regretted not launching the Mokka and the Cabrio earlier in the US and China.

As for Adams, he held the post of design chief until August of last year. He was then assigned the same position at Buick and Cadillac, since his predecessor had abruptly left his post in July. Adams leaves behind the new generation of the CTS, which inherits traits from the ATS. But here in Europe we remember him for having led the designs of the Opel Antara, Corsa D, new Astra GTC and the Zafira Tourer.

Via | Automotive News