Car Design News spoke to design bosses past and present plus other notable alumni to find out what Potsdam was like in the glory days – plus the possible reasons behind its closure. Peter Wouda, Thomas Ingenlath, Stefan Sielaff and more offer honest reflections, fond memories and surprising revelations
Studio closures are rare occurrences these days, so it came as a shock to hear that Volkswagen’s Potsdam design centre would shutter by the end of 2024. Car Design News spoke to design bosses past and present plus other notable alumni to find out what it was like to work there and the possible reasons behind its closure.
Borne from a desire to bring the best creative talent close to home, and to stretch the boundaries of design, the stunning waterfront structure tore up the rulebook when it came to what a studio should look like. Some of the biggest names in the industry came through these doors, and it has been responsible for some of the most progressive and future-looking cars the industry has ever seen.
Here, teams were essentially given free rein to work across the umbrella of brands, from Audi and Bentley to Cupra, Lamborghini and Skoda – even MAN Truck & Bus. Iconic Bugatti models started life here, as did the gamechanging Volkswagen XL1 and 2009 Volkswagen Concept BlueSport, a TT-esque prototype put together by Klaus Zyciora (then Bischoff), Thomas Ingenlath, Peter Wouda and Romulus Rost.
Indeed, the site played a formative role in the careers of many big names in car design: Walter de Silva, Luc Donckerwolke, Stefan Sielaff, Tobias Sühlmann, Pontus Fontaeus, Maximilian Missoni, Anders Warming. The list goes on: Marc Lichte, Jozef Kaban, Robin Page, Jorge Diez, Sasha Selipanov. You get the idea. Potsdam has been nothing less than a production line of design Galacticos.
Selipanov joined in 2005, and says that he owes much of his current skills and design thinking to Potsdam studio and its various teams. He came through the ranks with…
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