Klaus Zyciora, the former Volkswagen Group design chief, has left his post as head of global design at Changan Automobile and taken an advisory role, three years to the day after the Chinese carmaker announced his appointment.
Zyciora ceased to be Vice President and General Manager of the Changan Global Design Center on Wednesday, according to a company filing to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
He becomes Global Chief Executive Advisor, the filing said. Changan gave no reason for the change and did not name a successor to run the design centre.
The decision was approved at a board meeting on September 29 and disclosed the following day, with October 7 set as the effective date.
The board thanked Zyciora for his work during his tenure, and the filing noted that he holds no Changan shares.
‘A Broader Strategic Role’
Zyciora confirmed the move in a LinkedIn post on Wednesday.
“After three inspiring years leading CHANGAN Global Design as Vice President, I’m excited to take on a broader strategic role,” he wrote.
He described the new job as “working across design, technology, business and global strategy to support CHANGAN’s transformation into a truly global mobility and technology company”.
Zyciora thanked Chairman Zhu Huarong, President Zhao Fei and the board “for their continued trust and confidence” and his design team.
“New role. Broader perspective. Same passion for transformation,” he wrote.
Timing
The change takes effect five days before the Paris Auto Show, where Changan is due to exhibit three brands, Deepal, Nevo and Avatr. The show runs from October 12 to 18.
It also follows a reshuffle of Changan’s leadership in mid-September, when a new board was seated with Zhu re-elected as Chairman and Zhao appointed President.
Zyciora joined Changan on October 7, 2023, which makes Wednesday the third anniversary of his appointment.
Neither the company nor Zyciora has said whether his role as Vice President was tied to a fixed term.
From Wolfsburg to Chongqing
Zyciora, 64, spent more than three decades at Volkswagen, which he joined in 1989 as an interior designer.
He became head of design for the Volkswagen brand in 2007 and for the whole Volkswagen Group in April 2020.
He is best known for the ID. family of electric cars, including the ID.3, ID.4, ID.7 and ID. Buzz.
He left Volkswagen at the start of 2023, when Porsche design chief Michael Mauer replaced him as group design head under Chief Executive Officer Oliver Blume.
His Changan Venture
At Changan he oversaw design for the group’s brands from a network of studios in China, Europe and Japan.
The headquarters studio in Chongqing has 400 to 500 design staff and the centre in Turin about 300, Zyciora told Automotive Interiors World in January.
He said then that 70 to 80 vehicle programmes were running at the same time.
A studio in Munich with 80 to 90 designers works on Avatr, he told Design Week in an interview published in December.
“At a Chinese company, the speed at which you see product come to market is potentially 18 months, instead of 52,” he told Design Week.
He contrasted the two cultures again at a media event in Barcelona in June.
“In Germany, the culture is engineering-first,” he said, according to Motorverso. “At Changan, it works the other way around. Design leads.”
The models he presented in Europe include the Deepal S05, a compact electric SUV developed in Turin that he introduced at the IAA show in Munich in September 2025.
Europe Push Continues
The design change comes as Changan widens its presence outside China.
The company has said it will bring the Avatr and Nevo brands to Europe by 2027, alongside Deepal, which is already on sale in the region.
Avatr, Changan’s premium EV brand, last month confirmed plans to launch in Australia, with first deliveries of the 07L in 2027.
Zyciora wrote on Wednesday that he looks forward to “continuing to help shape CHANGAN’s global future”.
