Jozef Kaban will step down from his post of Chief Design Officer at Volkswagen, yielding the place to current Bentley Designer Andreas Mindt. According to Automobilwoche citing anonymous sources, the CEO was disappointed with Kaban’s performance and the design direction the marque had taken with him at the rudder.
Kaban had worked in the company since the 2000s, supervising the creation of various Audi, Bugatti and Skoda designs. He left VW for BMW in 2017, but returned three years later to become the marque’s Design Chief.
The ID.Life Concept seen in the gallery and the video below is one of Kaban’s most recent works, along with the all-electric Project Trinity. Insiders quoted by Automobilwoche claim the executives were not happy with either of these projects. As such, when Mindt steps up and takes the reins, he will allegedly have to redesign the affordable ID.2 EV from scratch, because its initial version was too closely based on the controversial ID.Life.
We are told that an official confirmation will arrive no later than February 1, 2023. Jozef Kaban will most likely not leave the company for good and will probably just switch to a different role instead.