Volvo Cars has appointed T. Jon Mayer as its new head of exterior design, effective May 1. He succeeds Maximilian Missoni who is now head of design at Polestar, a strategic affiliate of Volvo Cars.
T. Jon, a native of the United States, is a ten-year company veteran and has been instrumental in the development of Volvo Cars’ design language over the past decade. Among other projects, he was the lead exterior designer for the Volvo S60, V60 and V60 Cross Country models.
Most recently he was head of design at the Volvo Design & Concept Center in Camarillo, California. The Camarillo studio has grown considerably under his leadership and increased its role within the company’s global design operations by developing and advancing strategic and production design ideas from a uniquely US perspective.
“I am very pleased to welcome T. Jon as our new head of exterior design,” said Robin Page, head of design at Volvo Cars. “His track record as an exterior designer speaks for itself and I am convinced he is the right person to lead us into a fully electric future.”
Earlier this year, Volvo Cars announced its ambition of selling only fully electric cars by 2030. It will reveal a whole family of new, pure electric cars in the coming years.
“I am extremely excited for the future of exterior design at Volvo Cars,” said T. Jon Mayer. “We have one of the most talented teams of exterior designers in the world and I will rely heavily on the them to create a new vision for our electrified future. Electrification presents plenty of challenges for exterior design but also an open world of opportunities. I look forward to setting the exterior design direction for the road ahead.”
T. Jon Mayer came to Volvo Cars in 2011, joining the exterior design team in Gothenburg, Sweden. In 2013 he was the lead exterior designer of the Concept Coupe, Concept XC Coupe and Concept Estate, a trio of concept cars that demonstrated the company’s new design language and the capabilities of its SPA scalable product architecture.
“It has been a fantastic journey to be a part of the transformation of a brand that has strived for design leadership with our SPA generation of cars and continues to do so into the future,” added T. Jon Mayer.
T. Jon graduated with honors from Carnegie Mellon University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Industrial Design and a Minor in Business Administration. He then attended the Art Center College of Design and graduated with honors with a Bachelor of Science in Transportation Design.