UK Edition
Chris Svensson, car designer – obituary
Chris Svensson, who has died of cancer aged 53, was a car designer who enjoyed an illustrious career at Ford and was responsible for such eye-catching products as the Ford Ka, and the new Ford GT supercar which made a glittering debut at the 2015 Detroit Auto Show.
Christopher Svensson was born in Sunderland on December 12 1965. His grandfather, a signwriter, was Swedish. His father worked for Ford and was also a good artist and it was always young Chris’s ambition to follow his example.
He left school to do an art and design foundation course at Sunderland Polytechnic. He then discovered that it was possible to have a career designing cars for a living and went on to study vehicle design at Coventry University, then at the Royal College of Art, where he graduated in Automotive Design in 1992.
He was immediately hired by Ford as an exterior designer with Ford Germany at its studio in Cologne. He brought with him a design he had penned for his graduation thesis which formed the basis for the Ford Ka, the funky-looking hatchback whose distinctive wedge shape, rounded boot, triangular headlights and huge front and rear bumpers integrated with the wheel arches, took the automotive world by storm in 1996.
Svensson did not own a car at the time he was commissioned to design Ford’s new baby, so he modelled his design on what he would be looking for as a first-time buyer. “I wanted to create a small car that was very individualistic and functional,” he recalled. The Ka was praised by the motoring press for its handling, for its utility as a city runabout and for its performance and comfort over long journeys.
Svensson worked on other Ford programmes in Germany including the first-generation Focus and Mondeo. Then, during a one-year assignment from 1996 to 1997 in Ford North America’s Advanced Design Studio, he worked on two concept vehicles, the Mercury MC2 and the Ford P2000 Hydrogen car.
In 1997 Svensson moved back to Britain as exterior design manager in the Ford of Europe studio based in Dunton, Essex, where he oversaw the development of the Fiesta and the Fusion. From 2001 to 2007 he was chief designer for preprogrammes for Ford of Europe, working on the third-generation Focus, second-generation C-Max and Ka and sixth-generation Fiesta, as well as concept cars such as the Ford Visos.
In addition he collaborated with the makers of the 2004 film Thunderbirds on the development of Lady Penelope’s fantastical six-wheeled Pink FAB 1 car after Rolls-Royce turned down the chance to have one of their vehicles in the starring role.
After three years as chief designer, commercial vehicles, at Ford of Europe, in 2010 Svensson became Design Director of Asia Pacific & Africa, where he oversaw the Asia Pacific Design Centre in Melbourne, Australia, where he created a new Focus sedan and five-door hatch. From there he moved to the US to work as head of Ford design for North & South America at Ford’s headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan.
Many motor journalists regarded the second-generation Ford GT as Svensson’s crowning glory. The supercar was developed in complete secrecy in a locked basement room at Ford’s Dearborn design centre. Even some of the company’s senior executives were barred from seeing it until its surprise debut at the 2015 Detroit Auto Show, when its potent beauty won accolades.
“We designed everything,” Svensson recalled, “from the driver’s suits to the pit boxes to the liveries on the car. We designed every single thing, from start to finish. It really was an all-encompassing programme. We went to Le Mans in 2015, a year before we knew we were going to go. We benchmarked the very best. We benchmarked Porsche the way that they do the whole branding exercise. We set a target to be better than all of those guys.
“As a designer, it’s probably the most encompassing project [I’ve] ever done.”
Svensson was described by one motor journalist as a “ reliably friendly face, an increasingly rare thing in the automobile industry”, who never forgot a name.
A self-confessed car nut, passionate about cars of all shapes, sizes and origins, Svensson built up a personal collection which included a midnight black Ford GT competition model, a Porsche 356 road racer that he spent years restoring, a 1965 Mustang and a 1957 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia bought as a gift for his wife, Sonia, whom he married in 1996.
She survives him with their two daughters.
Chris Svensson, born December 12 1965, died July 21 2018