Driving change in the auto industry

Case study: Driving change in the auto industry

From a chance TV opportunity as a teenager to launching a new car brand, Chetan’s career has been one highly charged adventure. The ELS programme helped him accelerate in the competitive field of car design, but now as Head of Products APAC at Polestar, he hasn’t left his ELS roots behind: bringing fellow alumni and a young man he met on an ELS-funded trip along for the ride.

Turning an opportunity into more big breaks

Unsure whether to become a doctor or pursue his love of cars, Chetan got a lucky break when he was chosen to star in a TV programme about career dilemmas. “It was surreal, but that show opened so many doors,” he says. One of those doors held the key to strengthening his ambition to design cars, when he visited Jaguar Design and met the head of studio engineering. “I was sold; that’s when I knew what I wanted to do,” he says.

Chetan studied automotive engineering at Loughborough University. “It was incredibly difficult but the challenge set me up for the future and I loved it,” he says. He taught himself design and learned how to draw cars, but the ELS programme changed the direction of his ambitions. “I got to understand what industrial leadership is and the impact good engineers can have on society,” he explains. “That motivated me to become the best engineer I could.”

Moving up a gear

Chetan used his ELS funds to attend the biggest auto conference in the world and toured Ford’s Innovation Centre in Detroit. But it was attending the Global Grand Challenges Summit in London that proved most inspirational. “The other delegates were megastars. It made me realise the impact I could have too. The conference was a turning point in my mindset.”

A trip to Brazil also proved important. Chetan spent a month at a favela in Rio de Janeiro volunteering with children and learning Portuguese. One teenage boy told him he wanted to design cars and Chetan decided to mentor him. As well as making regular video calls, he has helped the teenager through a car design course and is currently working out how to make his dream a reality. “That was the most rewarding thing I got out of the ELS programme – helping inspire the next generation and someone who has so much talent,” he says.

A career in the fast lane

It hadn’t occurred to Chetan to apply for jobs abroad before he spoke to his ELS peers. Out of three job offers, he chose Volvo Car’s graduate programme in Sweden. “I was born in Hong Kong, my parents are Indian and I grew up in the north east of England,” he says. “I was a bit of a chameleon fitting in everywhere and nowhere, but at Volvo, I was around other people like me.” Chetan worked in the design studio like he planned. “My first day in the studio was the first day of the design of a brand-new car … so I got to live my dream of seeing a car go from a clean sheet of paper to the final design.”

Then, Volvo launched Polestar – an electric performance car brand – and Chetan’s career shifted up another gear when he was asked to become the CEO’s assistant. “As a 27-yearold, I was freaked out,” he says. “My childhood dream was to design a car and here I was being presented with the opportunity to design a car company.”

Chetan’s team has launched two cars and he’s even led the design and named a concept car called the Polestar Precept, which is going into production. “I’ve lived my dreams and back several times over.” The ELS programme taught Chetan to seize opportunities. “You realise that all these CEOs and heroes – the people who are in the world-changing stuff – were like you are.

The Academy and the ELS ignited in me the determination to succeed at everything I try, be the best engineer I can be and do good for society. It’s been invaluable.