365NEWS gathered that A Nigerian automotive designer, Jelani Aliyu, as the lead exterior designer at the American car company, is behind the design of Chevrolet Volt, a hybrid electric vehicle with a sleek arcing roofline.
He also co-designed the Oldsmobile Bravada, Buick Rendezvous and the Opel Astra and was the lead exterior designer for the Pontiac G6, according to Wikipedia.
Born in Kaduna in 1966, Jelani earned an associate degree in Architecture from Birnin Kebbi Polytechnic in 1988. Upon graduation from the Polytechnic, he worked at the Ministry of Works, Sokoto, his home state, before pursuing additional education in the United states.
He graduated in 1994 with a degree in Automobile Design from the College for Creative Studies, Detroit, Michigan and was hired by General Motors.
Aliyu was appointed by former President Muhammadu Buhari as the Director-General of the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC) in 2017.
While studying, Aliyu won two prestigious awards from Ford Motor Company and Michelin, US. In 1994, Aliyu got his qualification in automotive design and immediately joined the General Motors team, where he started his design career.
When speaking about the inspiration for his automotive design career in an interview, Jelani Aliyu said, “I have always loved drawing. These are different things around me, people, objects, plants, also stuff from my imagination.
“Growing up, I have always loved science fiction, and in the movies, you would see a lot of alien spacecraft and other futuristic things that would inspire me to look beyond. I also love cars very much, even though then we did not have any Ferraris in Sokoto.
“However, we did have magazines in which I saw them, and they inspired me, too. So I put together my love for drawing and cars and decided to be a car designer.”
On the design of Chevrolet Volt, Aliyu said, “Look at a tiny leaf, it is only a millimeter thick and yet it is a highly efficient factory…”
“I try to understand nature’s efficiency and design and I pulled those concepts and applied them to the Chevrolet Volt.”