Walter De Silva will design the family of plug-in hybrid and electric luxury cars that will born from the joint venture between the American company Silk and the Chinese Faw. Under the agreement signed by the companies, the cars will be produced and developed in China and Italy, Emilia Romagna, from 2022. The first will be the S9, a plug-in hybrid and all-electric supercar that will debut in April at the Shanghai Motor Show, while in the coming years the range of sports cars will be enriched with new models called S7, S5 and S3.

The Italian designer will be Vice President Styling and Design. The new range in China will be linked to the Hongqi brand, while in Italy the brand name is still being defined. “The general styling principles of this new family of sports cars will be those that have long guided my philosophy and which can be summarised in the expression “Less is more”. Purity of line, lightness and overall harmony of form and dynamics give the essence of beauty. We are applying these fundamental concepts of style and function with the collaboration of another Italian excellence: Dallara,” explains Walter De Silva.