Former BWM designer Jochen Paesen joins the design studio at Kia Motors. The South Korean-based design team is led by Karim Habib, former BMW Head of Design. This is Kia’s third major hire from BMW’s pool of talent which also includes Albert Biermann, previously head of engineering at BMW M.

Paesen has a name for himself while working on the interior design of the BMW Vision Efficient Dynamics which later became the BMW i8.

The Belgium national is a globetrotter having lived in South Africa, France, England, Holland and Germany. We finished his design degree at Coventry University in England, then attended the Royal College of Art.

Prior to BMW, Paesen worked for Volkswagen for 5 years where he crafted the interior of the Amarok. Aside from the Vision ED concept, Paesen also penned the interior design of F12 6 Series. Before leaving BMW for NIO, he was the Head of Interior Design for BMW i.

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At NIO, Paesen was in charge of the Interior Design team. He designed the super electric vehicle EP9 and the compact sport utility electric vehicle ES8.

In his new role at Kia, Paesen will be Vice President of the Interior Design Group and based out of the Kia Design Center in Namyang, South Korea. He’ll report to Habib who is now Senior Vice President and Head of the Kia Design Center.