Tata Motors elevates Pratap Bose to VP, Global Design

Tata Motors' Head of Design, the man behind the design renaissance at the carmaker, promoted.

By Nilesh Wadhwa

27 Jan 2019

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Image courtesy: Tata Motors

It was a tweet from Hormazd Sorabjee which revealed the news of Tata Motors' head of design Pratap Bose being elevated to vice-president - Global Design. "Congratulations to @BosePratap who’s just been elevated to Vice President Global Design @TataMotors. Well deserved promotion for the man behind the design renaissance at #TataMotors".

Born in Mumbai, Pratap Bose was educated at the National Institute of Design, India and the Royal College of Art, London. He has worked at global automakers such as Piaggio, Italy; Mitsubishi Motors, Japan; and Mercedes-Benz Japan, where he had a five-year stint, before joining Tata Motors in 2007.

Pratap’s journey with Tata Motors began in 2007, where he worked his way up and was appointed Head of Design in 2011. Since then, he has been spearheading the design for cars, trucks and buses for Tata Motors, across the three in-house design centres (Pune in India, Turin in Italy and Tata Motors European Technical Centre in the UK) where he leads a team of 180 creative staff.

He is also responsible for the design of passenger cars and commercial vehicles and leads the design of many multiple award-winning cars and commercial vehicles. Pratap loves cooking, aeroplanes, painting, learning languages and is a terrible amateur drummer. Pratap is also the Visiting Professor at the Vehicle Design department in Royal College of Art.

In 2018, Pratap bagged the ‘Top Chief Designer Officer’ award at the 2nd World Industrial Design held in China.

He and his team have been one of the major driving forces behind Tata Motors’ new design language in the commercial vehicle as well as the passenger vehicle segment. Building on the Impact Design philosophy, IMPACT Design 2.0, introduced in January 2018, is a sharper, more contemporary expression of the now recognisable Tata Motors’ eye-catching design language, be it in the Nexon or the just-launched Harrier.

Snazzy vehicle design in the recent past has helped Tata Motors increase not only its sales but also its market share.

(With inputs from 'Knowledge of Design Week')