Karim Habib, the Montreal to the head of design for Infiniti

Infiniti

Frédéric Mercier

Wednesday, 28 February, 2018 07:41

UPDATE
Wednesday, 28 February, 2018 07:41

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In the past few months, there is a part of Quebec in the development of the design of the brand Infiniti. A big part, even.

After years spent in charge of the design at BMW, the Quebec lebanese-born Karim Habib has left the prestigious German manufacturer last summer to take the helm of the department of design of Infiniti.

If the signature aesthetic of products BMW is almost casting in concrete for decades, the Infiniti continues to evolve, or even be looking for a little bit. And to Habib, this translates into a freedom that is refreshing.

Infiniti

Objective: to stand out

“The relationship is different, that’s for sure,” says the principal. “We must take risks. The last thing you should do, is to copy others,” he continued.

That is all it could give? We had a prime example last January when Infiniti took advantage of the auto Show in Detroit to unveil its concept Q Inspiration.

Infiniti Q Inspiration Concept

“Appeals are made to different proportions for a model with four-doors. With engines more compact, it may have a hood-less long ” he says. And it will continue to change with the electrical turn as we have promised.”

The electrical turn, which it refers to, this is the announcement made in January by Infiniti, where the manufacturer of luxury has confirmed that all its models released from 2021 would offer an electric model. “A point of view of a designer, it represents challenges, but also opportunities,” emphasizes Karim Habib.

During his many years at BMW, Habib has worked on the design of models such as the X1, M2 and the BMW concept Next 100, specially designed to celebrate 100 years of the bavarian manufacturer.

Montreal in the head

Crossing into Canada within the framework of the auto Show in Toronto, Karim Habib took the opportunity to make a detour to Montreal, where his mother still remains.

“This is the house for me. I arrived here 10 years and I left at 24, after my studies at McGill University.” His career has led him far from the house, but Karim Habib talks about Montreal as if it had never left.
“When you think about it, I’ve lived longer in Munich than in Montreal, but it is in Quebec that I have lived my years are formative,” he continued. Born in Lebanon in 1970, Karim Habib was still a child when his family packed and left for Montreal. And growing up, this is where the interest for cars has begun to germinate.

“To live in a city where the Formula 1 comes to every years, it is something. I remember that it was quite easy to go to see the qualifications and everything that was going on downtown,” he recalls.

Today, this passion turned into a vocation. And after many years in Germany, it is the turn of Japan to take advantage of the talents of Karim Habib.

But his heart remains in Montreal.