Wolfgang Bremer. Designing the Edges of the EV Revolution

On this episode of The Bucket Seat, Trevor and Bonar talk with Wolfgang Bremer, a German-Canadian design leader who previously led design at Volkswagen Group Charging (Elli). Wolfgang’s career spans SAP and Nokia, and his focus sits where cars meet infrastructure: charging, software, energy, and the everyday details that shape EV ownership.

Across a fast, candid hour we cover:

• Designing the world around the car: why UX for charging, apps, and services is now core to the automotive experience.
• From chaos to craft: building design maturity inside a young organization growing at OEM scale.
• Fragmented charging UX: cards, tariffs, plugs—and what “it should just work” really means for drivers.
• Hardware vs. software: legacy automakers as car companies first; tech challengers as software first—and the convergence ahead.
• Real-life EV stories: ID.4 GTX as a daily, family miles in the ID.7 Tourer, and why tactile buttons still matter.
• What’s next: ultra-fast charging, inductive pads, smarter residential infrastructure, and seamless handoffs between phone, grid, and vehicle.

Car memories bonus: Wolfgang’s first car was a purple two-door Opel Astra F (yes, Saturn Astra vibes in North America), plus a backpacking road trip in a Golf II and the family’s manual-gearbox Mercedes-Benz 300 SL.

Pull quote: “Design isn’t just the screen—it’s everything between the product and the person.”

Guest
Website: bremer.co
Threads: @WolfgangBremer
BlueSky: @wolfgang.bremer.co

Hosts
Trevor Byrne & Bonar Bulger

The Bucket Seat explores the people, ideas, and design choices that make car culture tick—from motorsport and memories to the UX that powers the electric future. Subscribe, rate, and share if you enjoyed the conversation.