Samsung Motors to Close Huntington Design Studio
Ailing Samsung Motors has pulled the plug on its U.S. design studio in Huntington Beach, which will close at the end of the year.
The 22 employees have vowed to stay together as a design team and hope to find a car maker or other major automotive-industry manufacturer with design needs to buy the studio and its state-of-the-art computerized equipment.
Samsung Motors, which is scheduled to be acquired by Daewoo Motor Corp. early next year as the struggling South Korean auto industry consolidates, told employees at Samsung Design America last month that it would close the studio.
“They made the decision to pull out of this market because they probably are not planning to make cars to sell in the U.S. or Europe any time soon,” said Neal Brooker, vice president of the design center.
He said he was the only employee remaining at the studio because other staff members have left to pursue freelance assignments and prepare for the holidays. “But we have a commitment to stay together as a team if we can find the right partner,” he said. “This is a rich area for car design.”
Brooker said that Daewoo, which does not have a U.S. design studio, is one of several auto industry companies his team is targeting as potential investors in the Huntington Beach operation.
Samsung reportedly pumped about $2 million into the studio to equip it with the latest in computer-assisted design systems and had used its seasoned staff to do design work not only for potential U.S.-market cars but for all of Samsung’s proprietary products. Those are vehicles that have not yet entered production in most cases and that now will be built, if at all, under Daewoo’s command.
The Huntington Beach studio was started by Brooker in 1987 as part of British design giant International Automotive Design Inc. It was spun off in 1993 when Daewoo acquired IAD and was operated as a unit of another British company, automotive body panel maker Mayflower Automotive Systems, until it was acquired by Samsung in November 1995. Southern California is a hotbed of automotive design, with about 20 studios along a strip from La Jolla to Simi Valley.
Toyota established the first Southland studio, Calty Design Research, 25 years ago and moved it to Newport Beach from Los Angeles in 1978. Since then, about half the studios in the Southland have been started in Orange County.
Earlier this year, Lincoln Mercury said it will build a major design and research center in Irvine as part of its relocation to Orange County from Michigan.
Other major design studios in the county include Mercedes-Benz North American Design, Mazda’s North American studio and Kia Motors’ U.S. studio, all in Irvine; Hyundai Motor’s American design center in Fountain Valley and Mitsubishi Motors Corp.’s U.S. center in Cypress.
