Meet the design boss
Name: Peter Birthwhistle
Title: Chief Designer, Mazda Motor Europe
Age: 62
Main Challenge: Using design to help Mazda win customers from premium brands in Europe.
Unlike most automakers competing in Europe, Mazda is not downsizing its engines to help meet tougher emissions standards. It's driving efficiency by changing its engine geometry. One of the side benefits of this approach is that Mazda's front-wheel-drive models have the long, flowing looks of popular premium rear-drive models. Mazda Europe design chief Peter Birthwhistle, who has spent a quarter century with the automaker following stints at Vauxhall, Audi and Porsche, explained how and why this happened in an interview with Automotive News Europe Correspondent Olive Keogh.
