How Maserati's chief designer is bringing out the brand's 'dark side'

Taking risks and challenging the status quo can make or break an automotive designer. Klaus Busse knows this well. When he took over as Maserati's design chief in 2015, he was given a marque that had survived world wars, achieved racing history and was heralded for its timeless designs.

He was reminded of the brand's ethos: Gran Turismo. Or, in Busse's words, "A perfect balance of performance and style and comfort."

Busse is taking that ethos and transforming the 110-year-old brand so it can survive another 100 years. The automaker's thunderous V8 has been replaced with a smaller V6, which Busse says is better than its predecessor. He's designing vehicles that offer sublime performance without the carbon emissions. And he's pushing the boundaries at the highest levels with his unconventional designs.

His first Maserati, the MC20 sports car, drew immediate praise from the brand's followers and industry insiders. Now, he's setting up the company for its next phase -- electrification.

Busse spoke to ABC News about his design goals at the company, why driving a Maserati is a "hedonistic experience" and how Maserati has become relevant again to U.S. consumers.

The interview below has been edited for space and clarity.

Q: When you took over the helm of Maserati design in 2015, what was your first task, your first to-do agenda item?

A: Meet the team and introduce yourself to all the projects that are ongoing. Then ask yourself, how do you carry the torch with this amazing brand? What does the future hold for us? What could electrification mean? Connectivity? What's Maserati going to be like in 10 years? Maserati has this amazing history of reinventing itself.

Q: How have the design priorities changed at the company?

A: The priorities have not changed. To be a designer at Maserati, you need to understand how to build a car -- I mean a car that knows how to perform. We're here at a racetrack with the MCXtrema hypercar -- the final car looks like the first sketch and that's because we know how these cars work. You need to earn that respect from the engineers and it becomes a mutual respect. I never felt any pushback on the design. Maserati lives through design as much as through performance. These two elements create what we call this concept of Gran Turismo.

Q: How have you put your personal mark on Maserati?

A: I don't want cars to be remembered by my team. At the end of the day they're Maseratis, not my car. My main obsession is to be respectful to the brand, to carry it forward. We're now at 110 years old. Some of the greatest designers to ever work on cars have designed Maseratis. My main goal is to serve the brand and to have continuity. I also don't want to be too generic.

Q: How has AI helped your team design cars?

A: AI right now accelerates our visualization process. When I was young, it took me a day to prepare a presentation rendering manually. Then with Photoshop I could do it in two hours. Now, AI can interpret [a sketch] as a 3D model and I can present it almost as a movie: going from a sketch to the car rolling through an artificial environment in one day. In the past that would take three months. So it hyper accelerates the process and it allows us to invest in creativity.

AI is just a tool. Our design evolves through recognizing the heritage.

Q: What's the biggest design risk you've taken at Maserati?

A: The biggest design risk? I love that question. I have taken a few risks but I don't think I can talk about them publicly. To create a car, there's a lot of investment involved. The company and the process are set up to eliminate risks. But sometimes I have to provoke to a point where I push myself first, then my team. Because if we only present things that we like today, there's a chance they might get boring too quickly. Design is supposed to be timeless.

Here's one example though. For our electric Gran Turismo, we designed the wheels with a flatter section because it helps us with aerodynamics and it helps with extending the range of the car. That was the first time we did that. We came up with a design that didn't exist on the market. We did a design that was so new and unknown for Maserati. And now two years on the market, I think it's the best wheel we have. It was taking that step ... we were very out of our comfort zone. I am happy with did that and had the courage.

Then look at the Levante Trofeo, a very aggressive car. When we put this massive [V8] engine in there 10 years ago, I wanted to show a little bit of the dark side of Maserati. At that time we had no matte paint -- our paints were blue and silver. I thought let's do a matte grey -- it was a big deal internally and shows this is a more sinister car. We [at Maserati] try to make the cars running sculptures. They're not ostentatious. We don't do aggressive design, we want people to be appreciate of design. So the matte grey is kinda pushing that.

Q: There's a lot of industry chatter about screens and the loss of buttons. What's your take? Are automakers welcoming back physical knobs and switches?

A: It's indeed something we're looking very carefully at. We're in touch with our customers and listening to them. In the current generation of cars we launched, we went for more screens for a couple of reasons. There's such a massive leap forward in terms of technology and innovation in the current cars. The screen was the only solution to make this accessible for the customer. If you do everything in physical buttons, it's like a plane cockpit, it's too overwhelming. The screens were super important.

I rejected putting the screen higher up, however. When you drive a Maserati, it's a very hedonistic experience and I want your eyes on the road and not distracted by some kind of graphics. So we moved the screen down so it's not in your face, not the first thing you see when you enter the car. And they're ergonomic -- you don't have to reach up and out of the seat [to touch the screen].

We do embrace screens but we do it in our Maserati way. The driving pleasure is the priority -- not screens that play all kinds of animation.

Q: Talk about the challenges of designing a car that can be sold with an internal combustion engine and an electric battery.

A: That's indeed a challenge. Foremost, you're buying the design of Maserati. You have the choice depending on your lifestyle how you want to use the car. We're not trying to tell you what kind of car you need to live your life. With the GranTurismo, both [electric and ICE] cars look almost identical. We give the customer the choice.

Q: Has the company lost longtime customers who were fans of the mighty V8, which has since been retired?

A: Honestly, I don't know. The V6 replacement is a much better engine than the V8. The V8 had a peak of 430 horsepower. The V6 is 100 hp more. and it's lighter and more compact. And I can put it behind the front axle as a mid-engine and it allows me to do all-wheel drive. The V8 was so heavy and big and you can't do all-wheel drive. You also then have a front-engine car, which is not so good for balance. If we lost customers, it's only because sound is more important than performance. But performance is more important to us than sound. Don't get me wrong, I love my car (a V8 Gran Cabrio). But the V6 is a better engine. The engine is not screaming but you are screaming.

Q: After a vehicle goes through all the approvals and hits the production, are you ever like, I should have smoothed out that line or tweaked that fender? Are you doing revisions in your head even after final production?

A: So in the first half of my career, yes. I would never drive the cars I was responsible for because I always felt I could have done better. We always do the best in the moment at Maserati, and you make peace with that. With every Maserati that comes out I know we did the best in that moment. And I am incredibly proud of those cars. I never look back. There's always the next car and by definition the next car will be better. I am incredibly proud of what my team and the engineers have accomplished. There's nothing I can complain about.

Q: Which car are you most proud of at the company?

A: The MC20. It was the first car I was responsible for [as chief of design]. This brand has had the greatest designers that worked this Earth and suddenly you have to do that next step. This car will always be special.