Franz von Holzhausen

Franz von Holzhausen
Picture of Franz von Holzhausen seated in an office with Elon Musk Franz von Holzhausen with Elon Musk
Born	(1968-05-10) May 10, 1968 Simsbury, Connecticut, USA
Occupation	Chief Designer, Tesla Motors
Known for	Chief Designer of Tesla Model S and Tesla Model X

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 designed the Mazda Kabura concept car which 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.