Bendix Remanufactured Starter Solenoid 3-798 1119798 on 2040-parts.com

Interior Motives China Conference to explore new design directions

Chinese consumers are driving new design directions, and CDN's Interior Motives China Conference in Beijing next week is set to explore how. Titled ‘New brands and the search for a design identity', the conference features an impressive speaker line-up that blends the international (Chris Bangle and VW's Wolfgang Muller Pietralla) with the regional (GM PATAC's Friedhelm Engler, Ford China's Chelsia Lau and PSA-Peugeot/Citroën China's Robert Walker), with the domestic (Shan Wei of the Beijing Automotive Technical Center (BATC), and Ken Ma of SAIC). The annual conference is the third in China to be hosted by CDN's magazine Interior Motives, and will be held on Wednesday 21 April, and Thursday 22 April, just in advance of the opening of Auto China 2010 in Beijing on Friday (23 April).

BMW's quirky new i3

The side view of the new BMW i3 electric vehicle takes some getting used to, with no two windows the same size or shape. The i3 is high-waisted through the front door and then there's a notch for a taller rear-passenger window and the rear-hinged rear door and a narrow, tapering window at the rear quarter. Yet when you look at the underlying structure -- made of carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic -- an innovative choice for a mass-produced car -- there's a giant side opening from front to rear.

2011 EyesOn Design Awards

The 2011 EyesOn Design Awards, held at the NAIAS in Detroit last week, commemorated the late Chuck Jordan, a Founding Chairman of the annual EyesOn Design event, which celebrates its 25th recurrence this summer. Dr. Philip Hessburg, President of the Detroit Institute of Ophalmology – a non-profit internationally recognized organization that presents the awards every year – opened the ceremony by stating that Jordan was the "unwavering internal advocate" at GM.