Swiss luxury car start-up Piëch Automotive has announced the appointment of ex-Aston Martin CEO Tobias Moers alongside Manfred Fitzgerald, the former head of Genesis, as co-chairmen.
Moers will assume the role of chief technical officer, directing the development of the firm’s first car, the Piëch GT.
Moers ended a two-year stint at Aston Martin in July, having announced he would step down as CEO in May. He described the parting as a “mutual agreement”, amid poor financial results and the departure of several high-profile figures at the company.
Fitzgerald, on the other hand, left Genesis in 2019 “to pursue new opportunities”, according to an official Hyundai Group statement.
Piëch Automotive co-founder Toni Piëch – great-grandson of revered engineer Ferndinand Porsche – said of their appointments: “Both have a proven and enviable track record in this segment and possess extensive knowledge, an adept sense of how to communicate with exclusive customers and a distinct understanding of luxury brands.
“We are convinced that this management team will steer the Piëch brand to long-term success through the introduction of an attractive product portfolio, pioneering technology and an exceptional customer experience.”
They take the reins of a brand in its gestational phase: the GT was revealed at the 2019 Geneva motor show, but little more was said about the car until October 2021, when testing began ahead of its 2024 launch.
The company announced in May 2022 that it partnered German firm ElringKlinger to develop the batteries for the GT, targeting a 310-mile range from a sub-90kWh battery supporting 800V, 350kW charging.
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What happened to Klaus Schmidt? He is a brilliant and expirienced engineer, and HE has been CTO so far.
CTO is probably the best position for Tobias Moers but it should also be noted that he had his hands on two of the most delayed hyper cars we've seen. First the Mercedes Project One and secondly the Aston Martin Valkyrie.
Both cars were admittedly very ambitious. But the rest of his handling of Aston Martin was poor. Cutting back on production and costs not so bad, but he needed to sack Marek Reichman, and Aston still does. Clinging on to him as a designer will only result in poor sales - as they have every time.
The Piech car already looks to be borrowing quite a lot of its looks from Jaguar, XK and F-Type.