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The man behind the recent success of Tata motor's car designs, Mr Pratap Bose had always stated he will stay back in the UK. Now it is speculated that he will continue to stay in the UK as Mahindra's Global Design head. At their UK's design centre.
The car designer Pratap Bose is expected to join Mahindra Group and head their newly minted Mahindra Advanced Design Europe (MADE) centre in the West Midlands, U.K.
Bose's last assignment was as a vice president at Tata motors for the design department. This would be a brand new role being created at the Mahindra Group, that will see the group's design capabilities in India and Italy (Pininfarina) report to him. Such a position does not exist at present at M&M. In what would be a very significant development for Indian auto, Bose will be able to once again be able to work on a much celebrated and storied Indian automobile powerhouse. The move could be a huge statement, but more importantly, also comes at the right time for both M&M and Bose.
We all know, how successful Bose has been in the recent turnaround and success of Tata Motors. The move to Mahindra gives him an immense opportunity and more importantly – a big challenge – to help drive growth in new areas like EV (electric vehicle) and future SUVs at M&M.
Of course, for Mahindra, the time is just perfect to set this kind of change in motion, as it dedicates its automotive business towards a sharp focus on SUVs, and increasing its market share. And M&M also has a lot going on with brands like Peugeot Scooters and its commercial vehicles, and farm equipment portfolio in global and local markets.
We have already understood from Mahindra that the advanced design centre will therefore cater to M&M's vast global portfolio of design needs - that does stretch from two-wheelers to tractors. But it won't be limited to just the automotive businesses.
Interestingly there has been a lot of buzz that Bose would head Ola Electric's design needs. And after today's announcement from Mahindra, a number of people also speculated whether Julian Thomson who stepped down as Head of Design for Jaguar would be heading to Mahindra. At the time of resigning from Tata, Bose had confirmed that he would indeed stay on in Coventry.