Future mobility careers: how electric and autonomous cars create new functions for designers

The arrival of electric and autonomous cars raised a question that worries many parents: does automotive design still have a future as a career? The answer, backed up by what's happening at the Tesla, BMW, Rivian, and NIO design centers, is clear. The transition to the new mobility didn't eliminate the automotive designer. It multiplied the available specialties and created functions that simply didn't exist ten years ago.

For those who are thinking about educating their child in this area, understanding this transformation is the most strategic step they can take. This article details what changed with electric and autonomous vehicles, what are the new careers that emerged during this transition, why the designer remains irreplaceable, and how leading global companies are organizing their creative teams today.

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What changed in automotive design with the arrival of electric cars?

The absence of a combustion engine seems like a technical detail, but it completely redesigns what is possible to do with a car. Without the large, tall engine block that defines the bonnet of traditional vehicles, the electric car's proportions are freed up. The hood may be smaller, lower, or nonexistent. The cabin grows. The floor is flat.

This freedom of form is a high-level creative challenge, not a simplification. The exterior designer who worked within the constraints of the combustion engine now needs to find new visual references, create proportions that still communicate movement and brand identity without the visual languages established by decades of gasoline-powered cars.

Three design areas underwent profound transformations with this change:

• Exterior design: completely new proportions, with lower bonnets, redesigned waist lines and the need to create visual identity from scratch for brands that never existed before
• Interior design: the cabin became a living environment, not just driving, with expanded physical space and a completely new relationship between driver, passengers and the vehicle
• Color & Material for EVs: electric brands like Tesla, Rivian and NIO need to define palettes, textures and materials that communicate innovation, sustainability and luxury at the same time

For those who want to understand how these three specializations work in practice and what a car designer does on a daily basis, the article on Career in automotive design details the daily routine of the profession with references from the main global automakers.

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What new functions has the electric car created for designers?

UX cockpit designer: the function that defines the interior of autonomous cars

The cockpit of traditional cars was a fixed set of analog and physical instruments. In the electric car and, especially, in the autonomous car, the cockpit becomes a complete digital interface. Someone needs to design that experience, and that someone isn't just a software engineer.

The cockpit UX designer combines training in automotive design with knowledge of digital interface design. The work includes:

1. Define how the information appears on the vehicle's main screen
2. Design the visual hierarchy of controls and alerts
3. Create interaction flows for functions such as navigation, climate, and driving mode
4. Integrate ambient lighting with the emotional and functional state of the vehicle
5. Ensure that the experience is intuitive under different conditions of use

Tesla was the first automaker to treat the car's interior as a consumer technology product. The result was a 17-inch central screen that redefined what any automaker would have to offer to compete. This created a job category that didn't exist: digital automotive experience designer.

Color & Material for EVs: the most sought after specialty in the transition

Defining materials for electric cars is radically different from doing the same for combustion cars. Electric brands work with raw materials that are charged with meaning: recycled plastics, natural fiber, non-animal fabrics, cork, recycled aluminum. Each material choice is also a statement of brand identity.

Those who work in this specialty need to master:

• Technical and visual properties of sustainable materials and their applicability on an industrial scale
• The visual language that each material communicates and how it communicates with the brand's values
• The relationship between finishes and the perception of quality in different market segments
• The environmental impact of each choice and how this translates into product communication

NIO, the Chinese manufacturer of luxury EVs, has an entire department dedicated to Color & Material, with teams spread across design centers in China, Germany and the United Kingdom. The same goes for Rivian, which built its entire visual identity around a language of materials that is both robust and sustainable.

Urban mobility designer: the field that was born with the autonomous car

When the driver ceases to be responsible for driving, the car becomes a transition environment between two points. This change in function creates a demand for designers who think of the vehicle as urban space, not just as a mechanical object.

The urban mobility designer works with:

• Shared-use vehicles and autonomous fleets
• E-bikes, scooters, electric buses, and last-mile microvehicles
• The visual integration between different modes of transport in a cohesive mobility system
• Charging points, boarding terminals, and mobility infrastructure as part of the design system

This is an emerging field with no established rules. Professionals with a solid background in automotive design who develop system vision are creating this market, not just responding to it.

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Does the electric transition threaten the automotive designer's job?

No. The reasoning that leads to this erroneous conclusion stems from a confusion between function and market. What the transition to EVs eliminated were some design restrictions, not the need for the designer.

According to projections from the Boston Consulting Group, the global electric vehicle market is expected to generate more than 620 billion dollars by 2030. This growth translates into new design centers, accelerated hiring, and entire categories of creative functions that need to be filled by professionals with specialized training.

The clearest argument in favor of career stability is the following: every new EV automaker that emerges needs to create a visual identity from scratch. This means that the designer's work has not diminished. It multiplied, because the number of companies that need automotive design increased much faster than the number of designers trained to serve them.

The traditional functions continue:

• Exterior designer: now with more freedom of form and more pressure to innovate
• Interior designer: now with expanded scope that includes digital UX and space layout
• Color & Material designer: now with sustainability vocabulary added to the work

And the new functions are added to them, expanding the possibilities of specialization throughout the career.

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Which companies are hiring designers for the new mobility?

Tesla Design: the benchmark that redefined the sector

Tesla's Design Studio, based in Hawthorne, California, was the laboratory where the screen-centered interior and minimalist EV aesthetic became a global reference. The team is lean, but its impact was disproportionate to its size. Every automotive designer trained in the last ten years has Tesla's work as a reference for breaking with what came before.

Rivian: the mobility design for extreme environments

Rivian created a completely new visual language for electric vehicles aimed at off-road and adventure use. The design is recognizable, coherent, and highly deliberate, with materials and shapes that communicate robustness without sacrificing sophistication. The company has design centers in Irvine (California) and actively hires designers with a vision of brand identity.

NIO: the Asian luxury EV design laboratory

NIO is probably the EV automaker with the most internationalized design operation outside the US. With centers in Munich, London, Shanghai and San Jose, the company brings together designers from different backgrounds to create vehicles that need to compete with European luxury brands. NIO's Color & Material work is a specific reference for designers who want to work in this specialty.

BMW i: tradition that reinvents itself

The BMW Group integrated the design identity of its electric vehicles into the established brand language, without losing visual coherence. The work of the BMW design centers in Munich and Los Angeles is an exercise in creative continuity: how a brand with decades of established language reinvents itself without losing itself.

For young designers, BMW i represents something important: proof that traditional automotive design and innovation in electric mobility are not separate fields. They develop together, within the same teams.

The training trajectory that leads to these companies begins before graduation. Knowing the professional techniques in the area, building a portfolio with real projects and having concrete references from the industry are differentials that are developed earlier than most imagine. The article about automotive design for young people explains how this training has worked since the age of 15 and why the time to start is now.

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How does the autonomous car designer think differently?

The interior as a living environment: an unprecedented design problem

In the level 4 or 5 autonomous car, the driver doesn't drive. This radical change transforms the vehicle's interior into a space that needs to function as an office, living room, leisure space or transition environment, depending on the context of use.

Designing this interior requires skills that cross different disciplines:

• Architectural interior design, to think of space as a habitable environment
• Product design, for each physical element of the cabin
• Digital UX, for control and entertainment interfaces
• Lighting, to create different atmospheres within the same space

No designer from the 1990s needed to think of a car like that. Those graduating today need it.

Why the digital cockpit is the most contested course of the next decade

The screens, the panel and the interaction logic of the autonomous car are the field where design and technology meet with the most intensity. It is also where the shortage of professionals is most acute: there is much more demand than designers trained to fulfill this specialty.

Technology companies that had never worked in mobility, such as Apple, Google, and Sony, entered the automotive interface market. This created a new employer group for designers with a hybrid background, between automotive design and digital UX.

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How to start preparing to work in this market?

Training to work on the new mobility involves the same technical bases as traditional automotive design. Sketching, digital rendering, and clay modelling continue to be the fundamental tools that the best universities require in candidates' portfolios.

What changes is the level of vision that the designer needs to develop. Professionals who understand both form and interface, who know how to design an exterior with a strong visual identity and at the same time think about the digital experience of the cabin, are in increasing demand in all the automakers that are building the mobility of the future.

Starting before graduation, with real contact with professional techniques in the area and with references from the best schools in the world, is the path that separates generic candidates from candidates who have already arrived at the university selection process with something concrete to show. The program Automotive Design & Future Mobility by Be Easy in Milan was built specifically for this stage of training.

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Future mobility frequently asked questions - careers

Is automotive design still a good career with the arrival of electric cars?Yes, and the trend is one of expansion. The transition to EVs created new specialties, new employers, and new fields of activity. The number of professionals with training in the area did not grow at the same speed as demand, which keeps the market favorable for those entering well trained.

What skills does a young designer need to develop to work with electric mobility?The foundations remain sketching, digital rendering, and three-dimensional understanding. To these are added knowledge of digital UX, sustainable materials, and vision of an urban mobility system. The sooner a young person has contact with real professional techniques, the stronger their graduation portfolio will be.

Do UX cockpit designers need training in automotive design or technology?The combination of the two formations is the most sought after differential. The most common is a foundation in automotive design, with parallel development of knowledge in interface design and interaction systems. Universities such as the RCA and the Politecnico di Milano have already structured programs that combine the two fields.

Do Tesla, Rivian, and NIO hire inexperienced designers?Directly, rarely. Entry into reference companies almost always involves internships during graduation. The path begins at the best design universities, which have direct agreements with these companies for internship and recruitment programs.

In which countries are the largest electric vehicle design centers?The United States (California), Germany (Munich), China (Shanghai and Shenzhen), and the United Kingdom (London and Coventry) concentrate most of the EV design centers today. Italy, especially Milan and Turin, remains the educational benchmark and continues to be the destination of offices and design studios of global brands.

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Be Easy

Be Easy accompanies young people who want to build a solid career in automotive design, from the first contact with professional techniques to the process of entering the best universities in the world. If your child is interested in design and wants to take a first concrete step towards this market, contact us and discover how to structure this training with full support.