Quick Facts
Biography
Franz von Holzhausen (born May 10, 1968 in Simsbury, Connecticut) is an automobile designer, currently in charge of design at Tesla Motors after resigning his position at Mazda North American Operations on July 31, 2008. He designed the Tesla Model S, an electric premium sedan starting in 2008.
Career
He was also an assistant design chief at Volkswagen. Earlier in Franz's career at Volkswagen, he had an instrumental involvement in the New Beetle concept project, known as "Concept One," under design lead J Mays (Holzhausen saw the New Beetle concept through to production in Germany).
After taking his role at Mazda on February 21, 2005, von Holzhausen led the design of the Mazda Kabura concept car that debuted at the 2006 North American International Auto Show. Prior to this, von Holzhausen designed the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky while Design Director at General Motors.
He then went on to work for the car company Tesla where he is now. He is also known for designing the new versions of Tesla cars including the model S and the model X