VW’s design boss relishes the challenge of refreshing the brand. James Attwood learns what goes into his ‘secret sauce’
DESIGN HERO
In June 1993, Autocar asked a group of students at Coventry University’s School of Transport Design to imagine a modern reinterpretation of the Caterham Seven. Exactly 31 years later, one of the students featured – a German, then on exchange from the Pforzheim University School of Design – is back in the pages of Autocar for his efforts at reinvigorating a long-running car brand.
Except this time it isn’t a hypothetical exercise: Andreas Mindt is now head of design at Volkswagen, and he has been tasked with helping spark fresh life into one of the world’s biggest car marques. On his return to Wolfsburg in February last year, he had just weeks to pen the ID 2all, a model that neatly balances modern design with retro flourishes – and it was incredibly well received. The concept was upbeat, friendly and infectiously enthusiastic, much like the man who led its design.
Most importantly, the ID 2all – and Volkswagen boss Thomas Schäfer’s new ‘love brand’ concept – served as a major course correction after years of somewhat anonymous ID electric models, with an approach that sees the manufacturer embracing its traditions without getting stuck in the past. This immediate impact Mindt has had on his return to Volkswagen is why we have named him our Design Hero for 2024.
Mindt joined the Volkswagen Group in 1996, shortly after graduating, and worked on the first-generation Tiguan and the fabled Golf Mk7. He moved to Audi in 2014 and penned cars as diverse as the A1, the E-tron GT and the A2-aping AI:ME concept before switching to Bentley in 2021, where his design on the limited-run Batur helped chart the direction for the brand’s future EVs.
The return from Bentley to Volkswagen came about suddenly, with Mindt getting a call from Schäfer and new VW Group boss Oliver Blume. “There was a meeting in December [2022] with the CEO and some board members, and I did a little presentation to explain what I would do with Volkswagen,” says Mindt. “Big chunks of that are still in what we’re doing now. There was a match to the brand: I grew up in Wolfsburg and have it in my blood. I know exactly what to do with Volkswagen. It sounds a bit self-confident, but I really believe there’s a certain way to do it.”
When Mindt says he grew up in Wolfsburg, he means it: his father was a designer for
