Nicholas   David   Bio

Nicholas David
VP, Global Design

Nicholas David is a British-born award-winning automotive designer with over 22 years of international experience. He began his career at General Motors Advanced Design UK after graduating from the renowned Vehicle Design course at the Royal College of Art in London.  He was the responsible/contributing designer on the Chevrolet Nomad and GMC Graphyte SUV concept cars and worked on several production models.  Nicholas later completed his trilogy of show cars for GM in Detroit by executing the Chevrolet TRU 140S sports coupe.

He moved to California in 2005 to set up the Honda Advanced Design studio in Pasadena, creating various Honda Fuel Cell and Acura Sports concepts. Nicholas progressed on to Jaguar Advanced Design where he initiated and helped develop the Jaguar CX-75 supercar program; the turbine supercar, which was unveiled at the 2010 Paris Motor Show.  Furthermore, during his time at Jaguar, he penned the brutish yet beautiful Jaguar XK-RS limited edition production GT coupe.

Following his leadership roles at GM, Honda, and Jaguar-Land Rover, Nicholas joined the Aria Group and co-founded a design & innovation consultancy that specialized in supporting the automotive industry and tech startups. As the Director of Design, Nicholas developed products for high profile companies ranging from BMW, Nest, Gulfstream, and Space X. His most prominent contribution was the creation of the Aria FE and FXE supercars, the later of which has been recently featured at the Petersen Automotive Museum as part of their “Hypercars: The Allure of the Extreme” exhibition.

Emerging as one of the most prominent creators, Nicholas was signed on as the Chief Designer for GAC Advanced Design North America. During his tenure, he was credited with developing the World Record-breaking EN0.146 EV Concept car and the more recent Enpulse Electric supercar – which went into production in 2023 as the Hyper SSR- the first mid-ship EV supercar in China under their new Aion brand.

Nicholas David was brought on to Karma Automotive to reinvigorate the brand’s essence and captain Karma’s interior design strategy to take it into the next century. His vision to incorporate the latest technologies in a new way differentiates the brand’s resurgence from an already exclusive crowd. In conjunction with his sharp creative bandwidth and dynamic leadership capabilities, his knowledge of low volume manufacturing in the high-end automotive sector has led him to his current role as the Senior Design Director at Karma Automotive. Nicholas currently oversees all aspects of design, including exterior, interior, CMF and UiUx.  He is responsible for harmonizing the new Karma design and vehicle strategy, and in doing so, shaping the new look and form language of the future generation of its electric vehicles. Already, the brand has experienced a renaissance with the successful launch of the Karma Kaveya GT Supercar and the recent Ivara GT-UV.