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Mitsubishi i MiEV Electric car launches in Japan

Mitsubishi i MiEV electric car launched in Japan at around £20,000 Until now, electric cars have been very much an oddity. The laughable G-Whiz and the Tesla Roadster are interesting in their own way, but unless you want to look like Noddy’s best friend (G-Whiz) or are happy to have a second-rate Lotus Elise at three times the price (Tesla), there wasn’t much to appeal to the normal car buyer. But it’s changing.

New Peugeot 308 (2014) revealed ahead of debut at 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show

The new Peugeot 308 - revealed this morning ahead of a debut at Frankfurt in September and an on sale date in the UK of January 2014 – moves the 308 further towards the sector leaders with a new car – built on PSA’s new EMP2 platform – that’s a bit shorter and a bit lower than the old 308, and looks a lot slicker. The nose of the new 308 is lower than before and it sports Peugeot’s new, more refined, grill with slime LED headlights and manages to look like a convincing big brother to the new 208, with elements borrowed from the Onyx Concept too with the back end sporting LEDs that create three ‘Lion Claws’ in their graphic (like the Jaguar XJ). Inside, Peugeot have created what they call an ‘i-cockpit’ layout with a big centre console featuring a 9.7″ touchscreen that takes the place of most of the buttons you used to get, allowing Peugeot to create a dash with a sleek and uncluttered feel and heads-up instruments.

Who's Where: Kevin Rice becomes Mazda Europe’s design director as Peter Birtwhistle retires

Mazda Europe has a new design director. Effective 1 September, Kevin Rice will succeed Peter Birtwhistle, who retires from the post of chief designer, bringing to an end a 26-year career with Mazda. Following graduation from Coventry University's transport design course, Rice, 50, began his professional career at Opel in 1986.