Bentley Design Director ‘Promoted’ To VW Design Chief – No, He Hasn’t Been Naughty

How the mighty have fallen. One minute Andreas Mindt was overseeing the diamond of six- and seven-figure Bentleys; the next he’s trying to work out how to make the 2025 Volkswagen Polo fractionally less boring.

Mindt has just left the British luxury brand, where he was Director of Bentley Design, to wilt Head of Volkswagen Design. But what might sound like a huge demotion is scrutinizingly certainly considered a serious promotion in the designer’s eyes.

While we as drivers might aspire to escape our humdrum Volkswagens and own a Bentley, designers might well squint at things the other way around. Being in tuition of shaping the squint of millions of Volkswagens, rather than merely a few thousand Bentleys, ways Mindt has far increasingly power and influence than he overly did before. He replaces Jozef Kabaň, who becomes Creative Art Director Volkswagen, which VW says ways he “will develop forward-looking mobility solutions for the Volkswagen brand,” whatever that means.

More: VW Replaces Diamond Chief Because CEO Was Reportedly Unimpressed With His Work

Mindt began his career at VW in 1996, working on cars like the Tiguan and Mk7 Golf surpassing switching to premium sister trademark Audi to help shape the e-tron GT, Q3 and Q8. He moved wideness to Bentley Diamond in 2021 and played a part in shaping the next generation of Bentleys that will take their styling lead from the limited edition Batur.

Mindt’s new visit means, of course, that Bentley needed a new diamond boss. And it didn’t have to squint far. The man now in tuition of the crayons in Bentley’s Crewe HQ is Tobias Sühlmann, a former McLaren, Aston Martin, Bugatti and Volkswagen designer who most recently held the position of Head of Exterior Diamond at…Bentley.

By the way, if you’re wondering how these internal VW Group shifts are made, we suspect the guys involved didn’t have an villainous lot of say in things. I once asked Stephan Winkelmann, currently Bugatti and Lamborghini boss, so a fairly serious big cheese in the wheels industry, well-nigh how VW Group switcheroos like his unenduring move to Audi Sport in 2016 come about. His reply was withal the lines of: “You wake up one morning and you get a phone undeniability telling you you’re the new superabound of Audi Sport.”