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Volkswagen e-Golf: MK 7 Golf EV leaks ahead of Geneva debut

An electric version of the MK 7 Volkswagen Golf – the VW e-Golf – has leaked out ahead of a debut at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show. Even though car industry bosses are sure that battery electric cars have no realistic chance of becoming a mainstream option – and the best-selling EV, the Nissan LEAF, has only sold 50k since 2010 – VW are rolling out an electric Golf at next month’s Geneva Motor Show. The VW e-Golf – with pretty much the same underpinnings as the new Mk 7 Golf with an ICE engine – comes with an electric motor driving the front wheels and offering 115bhp and 199lb/ft of torque, enough to get the e-Golf to 62mph in 11.8 seconds and on to a top speed of just 84mph.

BMW announces DesignWorksUSA studio and ConnectedDrive lab in Shanghai

BMW has opened both a DesignWorks studio and a ConnectedDrive lab in Shanghai, China, as a means of gathering information and insight into the Chinese market as the company looks to increase its presence in Asia. Adrian van Hooydonk, Director BMW Group Design, said, "Creating this foothold for both BMW Group Design and DesignworksUSA in Shanghai is of great importance from both strategic and creative standpoints." President of BMW Group DesignWorksUSA Laurenz Schaffer said, "Our new studio in Shanghai places DesignworksUSA at the epicenter of the most rapidly growing and influential consumer market in the world and provides an indispensable resource for shaping our global perspectives for clients." The new studio will perform functions including product, transportation, automotive, environmental and interaction design; color, material and finish design; design communication, research and strategy as well as sustainability consulting. Designers from DesignworksUSA studio in Los Angeles, Munich and Singapore will supplement a local design team.

One Lap of the Web: Remembering the dearly departed

-- With news that Toyota is leaving the great state of California for the greater (by landmass, anyway; your own opinion may vary) state of Texas, it's worth reminding ourselves that Toyota in America started as one lonely building on 6000 Hollywood Blvd., having taken over a former Rambler dealership. (The site is still a successful Toyota dealership.) That first year of sales in 1958 saw 287 Toyopet Crowns and one Land Cruiser sold -- more as curiosities than as practical transportation, we'd wager. -- At any rate, Toyota's move from California to Texas is moving from "one of the most eco-friendly states in the union," according to Ward's Auto, "to the U.S.’s equivalent of China." -- Ten years ago today, the last Oldsmobile rolled off the line at Lansing Car Assembly.