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Peter Horbury, one of the most important car designers internationally, has passed away. He designed for some of the world’s most famous automakers, including Volvo and Ford. Born in 1950 in Northumberland, England, Horbury died on June 29 at the age of 73.
During his 50-year career in the automotive industry, Horbury was involved in the design of dozens of cars, commercial vehicles, buses, and motorcycles. He was design director at Volvo twice, with the two terms interrupted by a period in the same role at Ford of America. His last position was as senior vice president of design at Lotus.
In 2011, as vice president of design at Volvo Cars, he was a speaker at the first Perspective, the international architecture and design forum organized by THE PLAN in Venice.
>>> Discover the topics discussed during the last edition of Perspective EU and Perspective UK
Originally from Alnwick, a small town in the north of England, Horbury graduated in industrial design in 1972 from the Newcastle-upon-Tyne College of Art. Two years later, he earned his master’s degree in automotive design at the Royal College of Art, London.
Horbury’s professional career began at Chrysler UK, where he designed the Talbot Horizon, which won European Car of the Year in 1979. In the late 1970s, he spent a period at Volvo in the Netherlands working on the 480ES coupé, before moving to Ford in Europe, where he contributed to the design of such automotive icons as the second-generation Granada, the Sierra, and the third-generation Escort.
Then he moved to Volvo, where he remained for twenty years, from 1991 in the role of design director, overseeing the stylistic rebirth of the brand. He designed some of the Swedish automaker’s most famous cars, including the compact 480, production models such as the S40, concept cars such as the electric ECC, and, in the early 2000s, the XC90 SUV.
In 2002, he returned to Ford, which in the meantime had acquired Volvo. A couple of years later, he became executive design director for the entire US group, which, at the time, included marques such as Jaguar, Land Rover, and Aston Martin.
In 2009, Horbury moved back to Volvo as vice president of design. A year later, the Ford Group sold Volvo to Chinese multinational Geely, with whom Horbury continued to work. In 2021, he was appointed senior vice president of design at Lotus, one of the Geely brands.
Cover image: Peter Horbury with Nicola Leonardi, co-founder and managing editor of THE PLAN, at Perspective 2011
All images in the gallery retrieved from Wikimedia Commons
