Skoda poached an interior designer from Nio to simplify everything and make it better

The Czech brand Skoda, which is owned by the Volkswagen Group, announced that Chan Park, formerly of the Chinese company Nio, has been appointed as chief interior designer, he will instill a minimalist philosophy in new Skoda models.

Many Skoda fans are not delighted with the interiors of its latest new products, because the brand, on the one hand, is hostage to the corporate unification imposed by the Volkswagen concern, and on the other hand, it is forced to maintain the image of a pioneer of convenience and practicality, which requires original solutions and additional costs.

The contradiction between originality and unification is mainly resolved in favor of unification, as we saw in the example of the interiors of the new Skoda Kodiaq and Superb, which, in fact, are exactly the same and differ only in decorative elements: for example, the Superb has a visor above the instrument screen, but the Kodiaq does not — instead, the crossover literally has ears screwed to the instrument screen, because, well, it’s impossible for two related models to have everything the same. To which the pedantic bad guys respond that the same design is, of course, evil, but an instrument panel without a visor is an even greater evil. In short, there is something to complain about.

Chan Park

Chan Park, who succeeds Peter Ohl as Skoda's chief interior designer, will reportedly redesign the interiors of Skoda cars to embrace minimalism and improve the synergy between man and machine. We believe that this should be understood in such a way that there will be fewer physical controls in the new Skodas, and more free space. It is important not to overdo it here, because Euro NCAP has already promised to fight the dominance of touch buttons in the cabin, and has received enormous public support for this endeavor.

Nio ET9

Before joining Skoda, Chan Park worked for the Chinese company Nio, which produces electric cars with extremely minimalistic but cozy interiors. According to the British magazine Autocar, Chan Park was responsible for the interior design of the flagship Nio ET9 executive model, which has not yet gone on sale.

Nio ET9

The Skoda press service reports that Chan Park studied automotive design at the Royal College of Art in London, from where he graduated in 2007. He began his professional career in the Italian studio Pininfarina, in 2009 he moved to work for the European division of Kia in Germany, where he was responsible for the interior design of some projects. Chan Park later received the position of senior interior designer at Mercedes-Benz, and for the longest time (from 2013 to 2021) he worked as a senior designer at Audi, that is, he is well acquainted with the peculiarities of the management vertical of the Volkswagen concern.

Peter Ola, meanwhile, remains at Skoda and will oversee the rather abstract direction of art, philosophy and a single identity for future models of the Czech brand. In general, it is still completely unclear what will come of these changes and how exactly the Skoda interior design will change.