Peter Stevens (car Designer)

Professor Peter Stevens (born 1945) is a British car designer. He is one of the UK’s best-known and most sought-after international transportation and product designers.

Having worked as a design consultant for most of his career, he spent five years as chief designer at Lotus Cars in the 1980s under the chairmanship of David Wickins, where he developed the Esprit revision and designed the Lotus Elan. He became then became Chief Designer at McLaren Cars and was responsible for the design of the McLaren F1. He was later appointed as design director at the MG Rover Group in 2000.

Currently, Stevens, in the guise of Peter Stevens Design LLP is a consultant designer and is also a Visiting Professor of Vehicle Design at London's prestigious Royal College of Art. In July 2011, Stevens became director of design, on a one year contract, at Rivian Automotive, a green auto manufacturer located in Rockledge, Florida.

Twice nominated as the UK’s Prince Philip Designer of the Year, Peter Stevens has won numerous honours for his work including 2002 Automotive Designer of the Year by AutoCar Magazine. His work includes creating road and race cars for McLaren, Lamborghini, BMW, Lotus, MG Rover and Prodrive. Professor Stevens’ designs comprise both specialist, bespoke vehicles, and others which are created for mass production. His well-known designs include the McLaren F1 road car, the 1999 Le Mans-winning BMW, the Lotus Elan, Subaru’s Impreza P1 and world rally series–winning WRC as well as Jaguar’s XJR-15. Currently, Professor Stevens is involved in the design and application of hybrid technology to a wide variety of vehicles for home and international markets, including a high performance electric race car.

Some of his most notable designs are;

• Jaguar XJR-15
• Lotus Elan M100
• McLaren F1
• Lotus Esprit (redesign)
• Subaru '555' WRC Imprezas
• Subaru Impreza P1 and Prodrive P2 (also based on an Impreza engine)
• MG 'Z' cars
• MG XPower SV