TOKYO – Hyundai Motor Co. has recruited another BMW engineer, this time to lead vehicle architecture development at the Genesis luxury brand as the upstart marque begins to expand its lineup and target international rivals from Germany.

Fayez Abdul Rahman was appointed vice president of Genesis architecture development to set vehicle specifications on everything from electronic systems to user experience from the early stages of product planning, the company said in a news release Tuesday.

A key focus will be improving the performance and quality of Genesis vehicles, Hyundai said.

Rahman, 58, is a German national who previously led concept and platform architecture development for several model lines at BMW, including the 7 series, X models and high-performance M brand vehicles.

The appointment comes as Genesis plans expand its three-sedan lineup to six nameplates by around 2020, next through the addition of crossovers.

Rahman lands at the Hyundai Motor Group following the arrival of Albert Biermann, a former boss of BMW's M performance line. Biermann now leads performance and high-performance vehicle development for the Hyundai, Kia and Genesis brands.

The new vehicle architecture development process applied by Rahman will gradually be applied to other Hyundai Motor Group vehicles, in a move to make its cars more competitive against those of Europe’s leading premium manufacturers.

At BMW, Rahman was most recently responsible for M Equipment, M sport packages, M performance vehicles and BMW Individual for all BMW product lines and vehicles.