Audi A6 1999 Radio Cassette [0661200] on 2040-parts.com

The Porsche P1 is lighter, greener and more exclusive than McLaren's new hypercar

Long before the legendary Porsche 911 -- before, even, the Porsche 356 -- Ferdinand Porsche was tinkering with alternative powertrains and designing road-worthy vehicles. Though it wasn't the first vehicle to bear his name, the “Egger-Lohner electric vehicle, C.2 Phaeton model” was the earliest result of his efforts. Perhaps getting the jump on the modern alpha-numeric craze/plague, it was shortened to a simple “P1.” The P1 (we'll refer to it as the Porsche P1 from here on out to avoid confusion) made its first appearance in Vienna on June 26, 1898, and it didn't last long in the public eye: Before Porsche decided to pull it out and put it on display, it had reportedly been sitting in a warehouse, untouched, since 1902.

Show Review: 100% Design Tokyo

Tokyo held its design week late last year, overlapping with the tail-end of the auto show. Though thankfully easier to get to than that, what you get is a bit different to expectations. Japanese are noted for the effort they give presentation: it's in their dress, their language, in how they wrap gifts in stores and serve food in restaurants.

Video: GM's Clay Dean on the future of urban mobility

Clay Dean is the star of a new Faces of GM video, Anticipating the Driving Experience of the Future. The global design director for GM's Advanced Design Group, whose job also entails exploring future transportation design solutions, talks about the need to avoid short-term thinking on urban mobility, as by 2030 60 percent of the world's population will live in cities. As new challenges start to emerge, such as increasing congestion, Dean believes it is time to start thinking about transportation in a completely different way.