China’s state-owned First Automotive Works (FAW) has announced that Giles Taylor has formally joined the corporation as the “Global Vice President of Design and Chief Creative Officer (CCO)”.

Taylor, who until very recently was design boss at none other than Rolls-Royce, will now be chiefly responsible for creating design strategies for FAW’s Hong Qi luxury car brand; the Chinese car manufacturer currently sells vehicles under ten different brands.

However, Taylor will be located in Germany and not in China. He has been tasked with leading the establishment of a new FAW Advanced Design Center in Munich, which will house an international design team. The Center will principally undertake project work for the Hong Qi brand including both forward-looking concepts and production projects.

“Hong Qi [“Red Flag”], as the oldest and most famous Chinese car brand, carries with it a deeply significant and diverse cultural history. There are many inspirational elements surrounding the marque with which to create fresh, modern vehicles for the new era,” said Taylor about his new appointment.

“Under the general trend of globalisation, China’s auto industry is facing an excellent opportunity of setting not only a benchmark but also a precedent within the global auto industry. We need a more internationalised, specialised and diversified team with a more globalised mind and vision in order to deeply fuse China’s rich high-level culture with other advanced global cultures, modern fashion designs, leading-edge science and technologies, including fine-grained emotional experiences into brilliant products and services,” added FAW boss, Xu Liuping.

Before joining Rolls-Royce, Taylor, who is also a master’s graduate from the famed vehicle design programme at the Royal College of Art in London, spent 13 years at Jaguar during which time he held the position of chief designer for the current XJ saloon and XK sportscar launched in 2005.

In 2011, Taylor went on to join Rolls-Royce where from 2012 he served as director of design up until now. He led the design of many cars including the drop-head Dawn, Phantom VIII limousine and the recently launched Cullinan SUV. In 2016, his Rolls-Royce 103ex concept vehicle proposed an “autonomous luxury” vision beyond 2040 for the famous British luxury marque.

Tags: car designer, China, FAW Group, First Automotive Works, Giles Taylor, Hong Qi, Jaguar, luxury, Rolls-Royce, Xu Liuping