Alexander Hitzinger (born 23 October 1971 in

Passau Passau (; bar, label=Central Bavarian, Båssa) is a city in Lower Bavaria, Germany, also known as the Dreiflüssestadt ("City of Three Rivers") as the river Danube is joined by the Inn from the south and the Ilz from the north. Passau's popu ...

) is a German

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

who until May 2021 was CEO of ARTEMIS GmbH, a start-up in the automotive industry. Before this, he was SVP Autonomous Driving VW Group and Member of the Executive Board VWN, responsible for R&D. He previously also worked as Head of Product Design for Apple's Titan electric vehicle project and Technical Director of the

Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see #Pronunciation, below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany ...

LMP1 A Le Mans Prototype (LMP) is the type of sports prototype race car used in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, FIA World Endurance Championship, IMSA SportsCar Championship, European Le Mans Series and Asian Le Mans Series. Le Mans Prototypes were crea ...

project, Head of Advanced Technologies for the

Red Bull Red Bull is a brand of energy drinks of Austria, Austrian company Red Bull GmbH. With 38% market share, it is the most popular energy drink brand as of 2019. Since its launch in 1987, more than 100 billion cans of Red Bull have been sold worldwid ...

and

Toro Rosso Scuderia Toro Rosso (; literal translation of "Red Bull Racing Team"), commonly known as Toro Rosso or by its abbreviation STR, was an Italian Formula One racing team. It was one of two Formula One teams owned by Austrian beverage company Re ...

Formula One teams as well as Head of Formula One development at

Cosworth Cosworth is a British automotive engineering company founded in London in 1958, specialising in high-performance internal combustion engines, powertrain, and electronics for automobile racing (motorsport) and mainstream automotive industrie ...

Early life and education

Hitzinger was born in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. He has been interested in motorsports since he was a teenager. He studied mechanical engineering at

University of Applied Sciences Landshut The University of Applied Sciences Landshut (''Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften Landshut'') is a Fachhochschule in Landshut, between Munich and Regensburg, with over 5000 students and over 100 professor Professor (commonly abbr ...

as an undergraduate and earned an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from

Warwick Business School Warwick Business School (WBS) is an academic department of the Faculty of Social Sciences of Warwick University, that was established in 1967 as the School of Industrial and Business Studies. The Business School offers undergraduate, postgradu ...

University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands (county), West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded i ...

, UK.

Career

Hitzinger's first job in the automotive industry was at Toyota Motorsport as a development engineer. Hitzinger moved to

together with World Rally Champion Carlos Sainz, when Sainz changed team from Toyota to Ford. At

, he firstly worked as Head of the

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

-Cosworth

World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is the highest level of global competition in the motorsport discipline of rallying, owned and governed by the FIA. There are separate championships for drivers, co-drivers, manufacturers and t ...

programme and then as Head of F1 Development. In 2005, at the age of 34, Hitzinger was one of the youngest chief engineers in F1. Under Hitzinger's leadership, in 2006, Cosworth F1 team developed the first ever F1 engine (Cosworth CA, 2.4 Litre, V8) to attain 20,000 rpm at the track, despite the difficult circumstances (underfunded and small number of staff). This set a new standard at the time for F1 engines. From 2006 to 2011 he worked as Head of Advanced Technologies for

Red Bull Technology Red Bull Racing, also simply known as Red Bull or RBR and currently competing as Oracle Red Bull Racing, is a Formula One racing team, racing under an Austrian licence and based in the United Kingdom. It is one of two Formula One teams owned ...

and from mid- to mid- he also filled the role of Technical Director of the

Scuderia Toro Rosso Scuderia Toro Rosso (; literal translation of "Red Bull Racing Team"), commonly known as Toro Rosso or by its abbreviation STR, was an Italian Formula One racing team. It was one of two Formula One teams owned by Austrian beverage company Red ...

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

team. Since 2011, Hitzinger has been Technical Director of the

project. Acknowledging his achievements so far he was awarded the Automotive News Europe Rising Star in 2014. After winning the 24h of LeMan with Porsche 919 in 2015 he left Porsche in March 2016 in order to move to Apple. Hitzinger served at

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

's Titan electric car project as Head of Product Design in the Special Projects Group. In January 2019 he started working for Volkswagen as Member of the Management Board responsible for technical development for its commercial vehicles division as well as Senior Vice President of its self-driving car and MaaS (mobility-as-a-service) programs. Hitzinger's "ability to conceptualise clean-sheet designs and manage projects" led to his appointment as CEO of ARTEMIS GmbH, a 100% subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group, in November 2020. He stepped down from this position in May 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hitzinger, Alex Living people 1971 births Engineers from Bavaria Formula One designers German motorsport people Red Bull Racing Scuderia Toro Rosso People from Passau Sportspeople from Lower Bavaria