CAR Magazine reports:
"CAR recently spent some time one-to-one with Peter Horbury, Volvo's new vice president of design. Horbury, who pioneered Volvo's modern look in his previous stint as design boss from 1991 to 2002 spent five and a half years in charge of Ford's North American design studio. But in May 2009, Volvo CEO Stephen Odell asked Horbury to return to the top job in Gothenburg. Here he discusses car design in general, the ongoing sale of Volvo to China's Geely and his plans for future Volvo cars.
CAR: How is it to be back at Volvo?
Peter Horbury: 'It's fantastic. I started back at Volvo in May [2009] and moved back to Sweden in June [2009]. Gothenburg is a great city: half a million people, more Michelin-starred restaurants than you'd have thought and yet we're no distance at all from mountains and the middle of nowhere. I love it here. It's more cosmopolitan than when I last worked here. When I walked back in to the studio, my design team said, "That was a long lunch break!"'
What is your mission statement for Volvo design second time round?
'My job is to take bigger steps this time. In the 1990s we had to change people's perception of Volvo because some thought we built just boxy, safe, tank-like cars..."
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