British sports car maker Lotus has named Donato Coco the company’s new director of design. Although not a household name, Coco has plenty of accomplishments to his name, having held the position of director of design at Ferrari most recently.
Coco, 53, will begin his new role with Lotus on January 4th at the company’s Hethel, England headquarters. Coco will be tasked with finalizing the design of Lotus’ Esprit supercar replacement, and will also be charged with the redesign of the company’s Elise and Exige models.
Coco, an Italian native, has headed the design departments at Ferrari and French automaker Citroen. During his time at Ferrari, Coco designed the F430 Scuderia coupe and 16M convertible, California, 458 Italia and 599XX.
Prior to arriving at Ferrari, Coco worked for Citroen, designing the Xsara, Picasso as well as the company’s C1, C2 and C3 models.
