Electric Vehicle manufacturer, Tesla, has hired Aston Martin’s Chief Engineer of Vehicle Engineering, Chris Porritt, to be its Vice President of Vehicle Engineering. Chris joins the Palo Alto based car maker after 15 years at Aston Martin and 10 years at Land Rover.

Chris was one of the key individuals behind Aston Martin’s One-77 supercar, which was best known for its advanced structural design combined with active suspension and aerodynamics. He established Aston Martin’s Vehicle Engineering team from the ground up, establishing vehicle dynamics, NVH and durability and later whole vehicle architecture and vehicle packaging, as well as thermal management, aerodynamics and full vehicle test.

Chris’ team was the group responsible for the architecture of the VH platform cars including DB9 and V12 Vantage.

“Tesla is a hardcore technology company, which means that anyone leading a team of engineers must be an outstanding engineer themselves, as well as a good leader,” said Elon Musk, Tesla co-founder and CEO. “Chris demonstrated exactly that in his prior role at Aston Martin, creating in the One-77 what was arguably their best car ever.”

“I look forward to driving new standards for vehicle engineering innovation in the Model S, Model X and future vehicle lines,” Porritt said. “This is an incredible opportunity to bring technologies normally reserved for supercars to the high volume market.”

Chris attended Hatfield Polytechnic north of London earning a Mechanical and Automotive Engineering degree. He later earned a master’s degree in Automotive Technology Management from Cranfield University.

I met Chris in 2008 during a visit to Gaydon and he seemed a very astute and balanced individual – we wish him well at Tesla.

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