Mercedes-Benz Chief Designer Gorden Wagener will depart the corporate on January 31, 2026, at his personal request. He shall be succeeded by Bastian Baudy, who’s at the moment Head of Design at AMG.
After the numerous management changes announced lately—following which Markus Schäfer, Mercedes CTO (Chief Technical Officer), left the corporate after 30 years, and Mercedes-AMG appointed a brand new head within the particular person of Stefan Weckbach, coming from Porsche—one other piece of stories has stunned the automotive world.
After almost three many years, Chief Designer Gorden Wagener will depart the corporate at his personal request on January 31, 2026, to get replaced by Bastian Baudy, the present Head of Design at AMG, beginning February 1, 2026.
Born in Essen on September 3, 1968, Gorden studied Industrial Design on the College of Duisburg-Essen (1990–1993), after which he specialised in Transportation Design on the Royal School of Artwork in London. He then labored as an exterior designer at VW, Mazda, and Basic Motors, earlier than becoming a member of Mercedes-Benz in 1997 as a transportation designer.
In his early years at Mercedes, he was answerable for the outside and inside design of the ML, R-Class, and GL in 1999, and in 2002 he labored on the A-Class, B-Class, C-Class, E-Class, CLK, and CLS.
Wagener can also be the writer of the design of the Mercedes SLR McLaren supercar, which is a tribute to the legendary 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé, drawing inspiration from it by means of the lengthy “nostril,” aspect air intakes, and wheels that mimicked turbine blades.
In 2007, Wagener was appointed Director of Design Technique and World Superior Design, and in 2008 he turned Vice President of Design at Daimler AG, changing one other legendary determine, Professor Peter Pfeiffer, who had overseen Mercedes design for 40 years.
In 2009, Wagener introduced the brand new “Sensual Purity” design language, which remains to be utilized by Mercedes as we speak.
In 2016, he was appointed Daimler’s Chief Design Officer and joined the Board of Administration. Wagener coordinated the design of the Mercedes-Benz, Mercedes-AMG, Mercedes-Maybach, and G-Class manufacturers, and from 2016 he additionally labored for Sensible.
He additionally supervised the design of fashions from the van division in addition to vehicles till the separation of Daimler Truck AG in 2022.
Wagener was additionally instantly answerable for the Mercedes S-Class (W222, 2013), A-Class (W176, 2012—the primary A-Class to desert the sandwich construction), the primary era Mercedes-AMG GT (C190, 2014, which turned a direct competitor to the Porsche 911), and the Mercedes-AMG SL (R232, 2021—the primary SL constructed on a devoted AMG platform).
Within the SUV phase, Gorden Wagener designed the Mercedes G-Class (W464, 2018) and the GLC (X253, 2015). The German designer can also be the creator of the spectacular “Iconic Grille,” which debuted on the brand new Mercedes GLC EQ and shall be used sooner or later on different next-generation electrical fashions.
Wagener additionally left his mark on the brand new compact vary, which debuted with the CLA and CLA Taking pictures Brake.
Within the electrical area, Wagener designed the Mercedes EQS, which stood out for its record-low drag coefficient of simply 0.20. Its aerodynamic silhouette turned heads on the road, however the automotive was not successful as a result of rear headroom and legroom, in addition to some supplies, didn’t meet the requirements anticipated of the luxurious class.
Wagener can also be the writer of spectacular idea automobiles such because the Mercedes One-Eleven (2023), a contemporary reinterpretation of the experimental C111 automobile, and the Mercedes Imaginative and prescient Iconic (2025), which previews a attainable future design for the S-Class.
Imaginative and prescient Iconic is actually Wagener’s farewell mission, bringing to an in depth an distinctive profession.
