POWER LIST
This is the 14th year MotorTrend has scoured the automotive landscape to produce its Power List. We discern the most influential and transformative people of the past year, the ones who make this elaborate industry hum and whirl, speed up and bog down.
As the powertrains of tomorrow transition away from diesels, optimizing gas-engine efficiency and adding electrification, so too do the faces change with the times. There are always CEOs and other C-suite executives on our list, but we look for the people further down in the trenches whose efforts create a buzz. We love this industry and want to reward a job well done. And we try to find the new faces that reflect the trends, new tech, and sometimes new companies that populate the automotive landscape.
This year there were a few big business moves: Aston Martin went public; Tesla pondered going private. There was boardroom drama with a Volkswagen coup, the untimely death of FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne, and the punitive stripping of the chairman’s title from Elon Musk. But largely it was a year of solid product development, with some remakes of classics and launches of a batch of new nameplates.
These are the people behind those successes. Topping the list is the Person of the Year who left an oversized imprint. But the 49 others are the ones to watch in 2019.
Klaus Busse
Head of Design for Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Fiat, Abarth, Lancia, FCA
2018 Rank: Unranked
Busse spent 10 years with Mercedes in Germany then moved to the U.S. during the Daimler-Chrysler years. He chose to stay after the corporate divorce. Now back in Europe and designing FCA’s European brands, he has shaped cars as disparate as the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio. His next task? Shoring up Maserati’s styling.
Toto Wolff
Team Principal and
