Gert Volker Hildebrand (born 22 August 1953 in

Lörrach Lörrach () is a city in southwest Germany, in the valley of the Wiese, close to the French and the Swiss borders. It is the district seat of the district of Lörrach in Baden-Württemberg. It is the home of a number of large employers, inclu ...

) is a German car designer and since 2011 is Head of Design at

Qoros Qoros Auto Co., Ltd. was a Chinese automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Shanghai, China. Its principal activity was the design, development, production and sale of passenger cars sold under the Qoros marque. It was founded as a joi ...

. After studying mechanical engineering at TH Karlsruhe, Hildebrand then studied industrial design at the

Braunschweig University of Art The Braunschweig University of Art (Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig, HBK) is the second largest fine arts college in Germany. History The history goes back to the “Zeichnen-Instithut” (Drawing Institute) founded by the Bruns ...

from 1975 to 1979, he studied transportation design at

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...

in London in 1980.

Career

Hildebrand began his career with

Opel Opel Automobile GmbH (), usually shortened to Opel, is a German automobile manufacturer which has been a subsidiary of Stellantis since 16 January 2021. It was owned by the American automaker General Motors from 1929 until 2017 and the PSA Gr ...

in 1980, where he worked on the 1983 Kadett E. In 1986 he joined

Volkswagen Volkswagen (VW; )English: , . is a German automotive industry, automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Established in 1937 by German Labour Front, The German Labour Front, it was revitalized into the global brand it ...

as Head of Concept Design, overseeing the development of the Golf III. In 1989 he joined 3M as a design leader and in 1995 returned to the

Volkswagen Group Volkswagen AG (), known internationally as the Volkswagen Group, is a German public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of passenger and commercial vehicles, motorcycles, engines and turbomachinery. Headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxon ...

to become Alternate Head of Exterior Design at Volkswagen from 1994 to 1998, and in addition Head of Design at the

SEAT A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but may also refer to concentrations of power in a wider sense (i.e " seat (legal entity)"). See disambiguation. Types of seat The ...

Centro Tecnico in Martorell, Spain, from 1995 to 1996. Hildebrand was appointed Chief Designer at Mitsubishi Design Europe in 1997 where he worked for three years. In 2001 he became General Manager of

Mini The Mini is a very small two-door, four-seat car, produced for four decades over a single generation, with many names and variants, by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors British Leyland and the Rover Group, and finally ...

Design, leading the

Mini Countryman The Mini Countryman, also called Mini Crossover in Japan until 2024, is a subcompact crossover SUV, the first vehicle of this type to be launched by BMW under the Mini marque. It was launched in 2010 and received a facelift in 2014. The sec ...

, Clubman and

Coupé A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and typically with two doors. The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the Fr ...

models. In 2011, Hildebrand joined the new Chinese Israeli joint venture Chery Quantum Automotive Corporation, now called

, as Head of Design.

Notable designs

Opel Kadett E The Opel Kadett E was introduced in August 1984 as the sixth generation of the Opel Kadett, and was voted the 1985 European Car of the Year. As with its predecessor, it was sold as the Vauxhall Astra in the United Kingdom. This model was also deve ...

Volkswagen Golf Mk3 The Volkswagen Golf Mk3 is a medium-sized compact family car. It is the third generation of the Volkswagen Golf and the successor to the Volkswagen Golf Mk2, which was produced by Volkswagen from August 1991 (for the 1992 model year) to 2002 (fo ...

SEAT Leon A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but may also refer to concentrations of power in a wider sense (i.e " seat (legal entity)"). See disambiguation. Types of seat The ...

* Mini Clubman *

Mini Coupé The Mini is a very small two-door, four-seat car, produced for four decades over a single generation, with many names and variants, by the British Motor Corporation The British Motor Corporation Limited (BMC) was a United Kingdom, UK-bas ...

Qoros 3 The Qoros 3 is the first automobile from the Chinese manufacturer Qoros Auto, jointly (50%–50%) owned by Kenon Holdings and China's Chery Automobile Company. The four-door sedan was formally announced at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2013. T ...

Qoros 5 The Qoros 5 is a Compact sport utility vehicle, compact Crossover (automobile), crossover SUV produced by the Chinese automobile manufacturer Qoros. Overview The Qoros 5 is the second model of automobile from the Chinese manufacturer Qoros Auto, ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hildebrand, Gert 1953 births Living people German automobile designers Alumni of the Royal College of Art Karlsruhe Institute of Technology alumni Volkswagen Group designers Opel designers BMW designers