Jet Chip #23906 on 2040-parts.com

Audi’s new A1 range (2010): the latest news

By Tim Pollard Motor Industry 13 October 2009 09:38 Audi top brass last night outlined plans for the 2010 launch of the new Audi A1 family, including a whole range of A1 hatchbacks and potentially A1 estates, convertibles and small 4x4s. The Audi A1 will be positioned slap bang against BMW’s burgeoning Mini family when UK sales begin in autumn 2010, priced from around £11,000. The new A1 three-door hatch will be unveiled first at the 2010 Geneva motor show, with continental sales kicking off next summer.

Nissan opens new design studio in Beijing

Delayed by the deadly earthquake that hit Japan earlier this year, Nissan Motor Co.'s new design center in Beijing finally received a proper opening this week, when global design chief Shiro Nakamura showed off the studio as a new source of ideas for Nissan and Infiniti. Nissan Design China, as the Beijing-based center is known, "is not a studio to just generate ideas for China," Nakamura said in an interview with Car Design News. It's equipped to handle designs of show cars and production cars for both Nissan and Infiniti brands, aimed at customers in China, as well as around the world.

Concept Car of the Week: Saab Aero X

In January 2005 Bryan Nesbitt, then-executive director of GM Europe Design, charged the 15-strong Saab Advanced design team in Gothenburg, Sweden, to create the "ultimate vision of the brand". The design team – led by head of Advanced Design at Saab, Anthony Lo – worked on a number of sports car proposals, which were considered 'the jet fighters of the road.' The chosen proposal by Alex Daniel was for a large, front-engined sports car that would become one of the most universally acclaimed concept cars of recent times. Of course the Aero X's door arrangement – complete with huge, forward-hinged canopy – is its party trick, but even without the theatrics the car's proportions, surfacing and graphics are exceptional.