Geely Holdings' Horbury receives Lifetime Achievement Award from 'Autocar' UK

MANILA: Autocar UK recently awarded  Geely Holding Executive Vice President of Design Peter Horbury with its 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award.

The recognition serves to recognize Horbury’s contribution to the automotive sector with almost five decades of design work, which resulted in the establishment of Geely Holding, a top privately owned mobility and automotive services company in China.

Horbury entered Geely from Volvo Cars, where he was head of design. He made a significant contribution in assisting Volvo to shift from angular body styles of the 1980s to the 1990s to a modern generation of streamlined vehicles that are still noticeable in the current portfolio of Volvo.

Horbury started his career at Chrysler UK and later went to Volvo Cars from the Premium Auto Group of Ford in 2009. His purpose in returning to Volvo Cars was to aid in the revitalization of the company ahead of Geely Holding’s takeover in 2010. He then acquired a new position to monitor the growth of the subsidiary brands of Geely Auto Group, which include Proton Cars, LEVC (former London Taxi) Lotus, Lynk & Co., Geometry, and Geely Auto.

With his current position, Horbury heads a global design team consisting of eight studios located in Spain, Malaysia, China, USA, and Sweden with more than 1,000 design-focused employees. From his base in Gothenburg, Horbury oversaw the development of the design language of Geely Auto with a new period of poised Chinese style that has been lauded across the spectrum for its inspiring features.

The customer appeal of the new Geely Auto design language has added to higher unit sales from more than 480,000 units in 2012 to an excess of 1.3 million units in 2019.

Among his numerous design obstacles, one the most substantial responsibilities of Horbury during his recent years is the establishment of a new brand that can be placed between the mass-market positioning of Geely Auto and the premium models of Volvo Cars.

The team of Horbury established Lynk & Co in Geely Design Gothenburg with superior positioning targeted at young customers searching for vehicles that have stepped out from the status quo in the current market.

Lynk & Co was released in China in 2017 and it has sold more than 300,000 units at present. The brand is scheduled to debut in Europe later this year.

Peter Horbury explained, “It is an honor for me to accept this very prestigious award. Over the past 46 years of work, I have been lucky that my passion for cars has become my work and (it) has taken me on a never-ending journey. On a day-to-day basis I get to see the cars that were once sketches in the studio passing me by on the street, which never fails to be an amazing feeling seeing our creations come to life.” 

According to the President and CEO of Geely Auto An Conghui, Geely Auto completely acknowledges the dedication and exceptional design expertise of Horbury towards the enhancement of design standards worldwide throughout his entire career.

Photos from Geely

Also read: Rico Blanco, Gretchen Ho are first Geely brand ambassadors in PH