Former BMW (and Benz) designer Karim Habib has ended his time with Infiniti as their head of design. Habib joined Infiniti (the luxury arm of Nissan) back in July 2017, after spending most of his career at BMW. His time at the company saw him produce a couple of concepts like the Prototype 10, and QX Inspiration Concept. Nissan say that he’s leaving the company to pursue other opportunities, but did not elaborate further.
Karim Habib’s departure follows another high profile resignation with Infiniti CEO Christian Meunier quitting earlier this year. It’s a shame we never really got to see Karim Habib flex his design muscle with Infiniti. The man’s portfolio covers some modern icons such as the current 4-Series, the Mercedes-Benz F800 Concept and more.
Replacing Habib is Taisuke Nakamura. Here’s more about this story from the press release.
PRESS RELEASE
Nissan Motor Corp and INFINITI Motor Corp announced the appointment of Taisuke Nakamura as Head of INFINITI Design, effective September 1, 2019. Nakamura, who reports to Alfonso Albaisa, SVP Nissan Global Design, has served as Program Design Director of INFINITI and contributed to INFINITI design since 2018. Karim Habib, who is the current head of design for INFINITI, is leaving the company to pursue other opportunities.
Nakamura is currently responsible for global design strategy, and concept car and production vehicle design. He joined Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. in 1993 after graduating from Kyoto City University of Arts with a B.A. in Product Design. He has worked on many Nissan and INFINITI vehicles and worked at Nissan Design Europe in London as a design manager.
Just like Karim Habib, Nakamura is responsible for the design of EV concepts such as INFINITI QX Inspiration, Prototype 10 and Qs Inspiration, among many other vehicles.
