David Hilton is the new head of design at Karma Automotive. The designer leaves after almost three years in charge of the Advanced Design Center in Shanghai and Design Strategy at GAC (see our visit to the studio here). Hilton will now focus on styling cars for Karma Automotive, a manufacturer of luxury electric vehicles based in Southern California.
The designer will be based in Irvine, California. Prior to taking on this role and heading up the Shanghai studio of Chinese manufacturer GAC, David Hilton was responsible for Nio’s design, including the development of the EP9 electric hypercar, and from 2011 to 2013 he was Bentley’s head of exterior design. Hilton graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1991 with a degree in Industrial Design and later attended the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. In his long career, he worked for numerous companies including Philips, Fiat Chrysler, Volkswagen in Brazil, Mazda in Japan and Ford (11 years).
