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Driving the Chevy Volt isn't special, and that's good

We've had our first taste of the drive system under development for General Motors' pioneering Chevrolet Volt, piloting a test mule based on the Chevrolet Cruze at the company's Warren (Mich.) Technical Center, and it left us hungering for more. Yes, it's an electric car, but mostly, it's a car--one you could imagine driving every day without feeling as if you were engaged in a lab experiment. Frank Weber, vehicle line executive for the Volt, gets his nose out of joint if you call the drive system a hybrid.

Lotus announces partnership with Mansory

Group Lotus has announced its new collaboration with Mansory, which will become its official customization studio. The German tuner will be contributing bodywork, trim and special finishes for the Elise, Exige and Evora in yet another controversial strategic decision for the UK company. Lotus confirmed the first fruits of this new partnership will be the unveiling a new model variant at September's Paris motor show, two years after the highly ambitious announcement of five new models of which the first is yet to become reality.

Coventry University design graduates develop iconic youth car

Three graduates from the Coventry University MA Automotive Design course have created an iconic vehicle for the year 2020. Kazunori Inomota, Edward Stubbs and Mujammil Khan-Muztar designed the Rebel concept, a project that began in March this year, to incorporate aspects of Japanese 'Harajuku' gangs - where teenagers create their own fashion to deliberately try to stand out from their peers - and Toyota's youth-oriented Scion brand. Drawing styling cues from the Scion xB and the Ford SYNus concept unveiled at the 2005 NAIAS in Detroit, the Rebel concept is about social interaction, functionality, and the relationship buyers have with personalized products.