Porsche Designer Joins Chery Automobile

Former Porsche AG designer Hakan Saracoglu has taken over as head of Chery Automobile Co.'s design center in Shanghai.

The Turkey-born designer joined Porsche in 1998 and worked on the exteriors for the Boxster, Cayman and 918 Spyder. He became Chery's design director last October.

Saracoglu, 47, is the latest of several European designers who have been lured by Chinese carmakers in the past few years, Bloomberg News points out.

Great Wall Motor hired former Mercedes-Benz designer Andreas Deufel in 2011. Volvo Cars design chief Peter Horbury went to Zhejiang Geely late that year. Former Ferrari designer Leonardo Fioravanti joined Beijing Automotive last April.