Former Aston Martin, Rolls Royce Designer Wayne Burgess Joins Ola Electric As Vehicle Design Head

Ola Electric appointed Wayne Burgess, a renowned automotive designer, as head of vehicle design for its entire product range on Tuesday (4 May), stated a report in News18.

He will be dividing his time between the firm's design studios in London and Bangalore.

Burgess joined Jaguar Land Rover in 2001 and became the Design Director of Jaguar Production and Special Vehicles Operations (SVO).

In a career spanning three decades, Wayne has designed vehicles for premium auto manufacturers including Rolls Royce, Bentley, Aston Martin in addition to the Jaguar Landrover.

Bhavish Aggarwal, chairman and group CEO, Ola, said, "Wayne is a fantastic addition to our leadership team and will bring global appeal and design aesthetic to our industry-changing electric vehicles."

"Wayne's expertise in designing some of the most legendary vehicles will also be helpful in bringing these new form factors to consumers. I look forward to collaborating with him to build the most iconic range of EVs in the world," Aggarwal added.

Wayne expressed keen interest in working with Ola, "I am looking forward to my work at Ola Electric and to the opportunity to lead a team that will work on designing cutting-edge electric vehicles for the world."

Ola is readying to launch the first in its range of electric scooters in India in the next few months. It will be rolled out from the Ola Future factory, which is being built at record speed in Tamil Nadu, India.

"The Ola Future factory will be the world's largest two-wheeler factory when fully operational at 10 million-a-year capacity next year. The factory will start manufacturing the Ola Scooter as soon as its first phase of 2 million annual capacity is ready this summer," Company announced in a statement.

Earlier this week, the ride-hailing start-up announced its plans to open a dedicated global EV design centre in Bengaluru.