Volkswagen Group's former design chief, Walter de Silva, is styling electric cars for a Chinese company in his new role as design boss for German automotive engineering company Edag Group.
De Silva joined Edag last month and is responsible for the development, styling and market strategy relating to new models, the company said.
In his first project, de Silva will be responsible for the styling of a range of electric vehicles for a large Chinese company, Edag said, without naming the customer.
Some media reports named fledgling Chinese automaker Arcfox, a subsidiary of BAIC Group, as Edag's client.
De Silva will be based at EDAG's Barcelona office, which has 560 designers, development engineers and technicians.
De Silva will develop "new design concepts for a changed auto industry," Barbara Kersten, Edag's Spain boss, said.
De Silva is returning to design after retiring from VW Group in November 2015 at the age of 64. The veteran designer joined the group's Seat unit in 1999 from Fiat Group, where he was responsible for styling at the Alfa Romeo and Fiat brands. From there he moved to Audi, before taking overall control of design for all VW Group's brands in 2007.
De Silva was a close confidante of former VW Group chief Martin Winterkorn, who took the designer with him to VW's headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany, when Winterkorn was promoted to VW Group CEO in 2007 from head of Audi.
