Dacia designer Miles Nurnberger leaves after less than a year

Miles Nurnberger

Ex-Aston Martin designer steps down from his role as design director, to be replaced by David Durand

Dacia design boss Miles Nurnberger, who made headlines last year in a shock move from Aston Martin, has announced his departure from the Romanian firm. 

The move comes just under a year since it was announced he would succeed Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos (now head of Alfa Romeo design) as Dacia's design director. 

Speaking to Autocar in September last year just a few days after taking up the role, Nurnberger explained a big motivation for the switch was that it "wasn’t going to be going somewhere to repeat. It was something that was evolving and moving and had momentum in its trajectory.”

More recently, he suggested that his influence on the styling of future Dacia products would soon become clear, telling Autocar: "We have a proper brand mindset now. That will quite naturally lead us to progress, and to make new design statements."

He did acknowledge, however, that it would be "years" before a production car penned by him would arrive in showrooms.

It is not yet clear why Nurnberger is now leaving Dacia, and nor has the brand given an idea of the extent of his impact at the firm over the past nine months. He will be succeeded at the helm of Dacia's design department by vice president David Durand.

Laurens van den Acker, EVP design at the Renault Group, said: “I look forward to working with David to meet the mobility challenges of tomorrow. His creativity, experience and sense of innovation are widely recognised, both within our management and in the automotive industry. I would also like to thank Miles for his contribution and work with the teams.”

There has been no suggestion of where Nurnberger might go next. In his 13 years at Aston Martin, he had a hand in the design for the Valkyrie hypercar, DB11 coupé and DBX SUV.