Chief of Design at Ford Suddenly Departs
We generally don’t comment on the reshuffling of corner offices at an OEM – but when the design boss at a Detroit Three automaker allegedly sends an email out of the blue saying ‘peace out’, it’s worth sitting up and taking notice.
Anthony Lo was the chief design officer at Ford, joining the company in 2021 after a stint as VP of design at Renault. Reports from the Detroit Free Press suggest he sent an email announcing his departure on Wednesday, giving less than a week’s notice before he plans to exit the Glass House.
Under his tenure, the Blue Oval was guided in creating what we now know as the current-gen S650 Mustang, a whip which didn’t move the needle enough for this author in terms of looking different from the lest-gen car but nevertheless has excellent proportions and is a stunner in the right color with the right options. Numerous concept cars and creative design studies also sprung forth under Lo, such as the Lincoln L100.
Prior to Renault, the designer also spent time at General Motors Europe and Audi in Germany. Interestingly, some talking heads in the design community have pointed out Lo remained based in France after taking the job at Ford, commuting to Detroit an unspecified number of days per month in a travel arrangement that was apparently becoming more frequent as time progressed. We’ll bet Lo’s permanent replacement will work out of Michigan – likely for political reasons as much as anything else.
As per his bio page at Ford, he is a native of Hong Kong and a graduate of the Royal College of Art in London.
[Image: Ford]
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Matthew buys, sells, fixes, & races cars. As a human index of auto & auction knowledge, he is fond of making money and offering loud opinions.
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Aw, they don't need a designer - just put modern underpinnings on a 1955 Ford Fairlane. Stellantis could revive Chrysler and Dodge by putting modern mechanicals on a 1955 Imperial and 1955 Dodge Coronet.
Hmmm. Given that most Ford designs are doing relatively well in the marketplace, if this was forced I'd bet it was over the S650 Mustang. It's not a bad looking car but some angles seem very derivative of other makes, never a good trait for a car as distinctive as Mustang. And if he had anything to do with the abysmal dashboard, that's reason enough. Mustang doesn't need the "Tokyo by Night" dash arrangement of a more boring car. Analog gauges, a screen big enough for GPS, not Netflix and some decent quality plastics is plenty. The current set-up would be enough to dissuade me from considering a new Mustang.
Oem’s should fire whoever made the decision to drop V8’s in favor of Turbo V4 and V6’s. Got it was for emissions but I’m sure they could make V8’s more emission compliant. My F150 Ecoboost gets the same mileage as my 2021 Tundra 5.7. In addition to renewing my faith in extended warranty’s as it was a maintenance nightmare.
Jim Farley is an idiot. There is the reason.