Alexander Hitzinger (born 23 October 1971 in

Passau Passau (; ) is a city in Lower Bavaria, Germany. It is also known as the ("City of Three Rivers"), as the river Danube is joined by the Inn (river), Inn from the south and the Ilz from the north. Passau's population is about 50,000, of whom ...

) is a German

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

who until May 2021 was CEO of ARTEMIS GmbH, a start-up in the automotive industry. Before this, he was SVP Autonomous Driving VW Group and Member of the Executive Board VWN, responsible for R&D. He previously also worked as Head of Product Design for Apple's Titan electric vehicle project and Technical Director of the

Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in luxury, high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Th ...

LMP1 project, Head of Advanced Technologies for the

Red Bull Red Bull is a brand of energy drinks created and owned by the Austrian company Red Bull GmbH. With a market share of 43%, it is the most popular energy drink brand as of 2020, and the third most valuable soft drink brand, behind Coca-Cola and ...

and

Toro Rosso Scuderia Toro Rosso SpA (; ), commonly known as Toro Rosso or by its abbreviation STR, was an Italian Formula One constructor. It was one of two Formula One constructors owned by Austrian conglomerate company Red Bull, the other being Red Bul ...

Formula One teams as well as Head of Formula One development at

Cosworth Cosworth is a British automotive engineering company founded in London in 1958, specialising in high-performance internal combustion engines, powertrain, and electronics for auto racing, automobile racing (motorsport) and mainstream Automotiv ...

Early life and education

Hitzinger was born in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. He has been interested in motorsports since he was a teenager. He studied mechanical engineering at

University of Applied Sciences Landshut The University of Applied Sciences Landshut (''Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften Landshut'') is a Fachhochschule in Landshut, between Munich and Regensburg, with over 5000 students and over 100 professors. Its main focus areas are enginee ...

as an undergraduate and earned an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

from

Warwick Business School Warwick Business School (WBS) is the business school of the University of Warwick and an academic department within the Faculty of Social Sciences. It was established in 1967 as the School of Industrial and Business Studies. The business school ...

University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded in 1965 as part of ...

, UK.

Career

Hitzinger's first job in the automotive industry was at Toyota Motorsport as a development engineer. Hitzinger moved to

together with World Rally Champion Carlos Sainz, when Sainz changed team from Toyota to Ford. At

, he firstly worked as Head of the Ford-Cosworth

World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is an international rallying series owned and governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA. Inaugurated in 1973, it is the oldest FIA world championship after Formula One. E ...

programme and then as Head of F1 Development. In 2005, at the age of 34, Hitzinger was one of the youngest chief engineers in F1. Under Hitzinger's leadership, in 2006, Cosworth F1 team developed the first ever F1 engine (Cosworth CA, 2.4 Litre, V8) to attain 20,000 rpm at the track, despite the difficult circumstances (underfunded and small number of staff). This set a new standard at the time for F1 engines. From 2006 to 2011 he worked as Head of Advanced Technologies for Red Bull Technology and from mid- to mid- he also filled the role of Technical Director of the

Scuderia Toro Rosso Scuderia Toro Rosso SpA (; ), commonly known as Toro Rosso or by its abbreviation STR, was an Italian Formula One constructor. It was one of two Formula One constructors owned by Austrian conglomerate company Red Bull, the other being Red B ...

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

team. Since 2011, Hitzinger has been Technical Director of the Porsche LMP1 project. Acknowledging his achievements so far he was awarded the Automotive News Europe Rising Star in 2014. After winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Porsche 919 in 2015 he left Porsche in March 2016 in order to move to Apple. Hitzinger served at

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

's Titan electric car project as Head of Product Design in the Special Projects Group. In January 2019 he started working for Volkswagen as Member of the management board responsible for technical development for its commercial vehicles division as well as Senior Vice President of its self-driving car and MaaS (mobility-as-a-service) programs. Hitzinger's "ability to conceptualise clean-sheet designs and manage projects" led to his appointment as CEO of ARTEMIS GmbH, a 100% subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group, in November 2020. He stepped down from this position in May 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hitzinger, Alex Living people 1971 births Alumni of Warwick Business School Engineers from Bavaria Formula One designers Formula One engine engineers German motorsport people Red Bull Racing Scuderia Toro Rosso People from Passau Sportspeople from Lower Bavaria