Light Bulb 214-2 on 2040-parts.com

BMW i3 EV revealed. It’s clever, but it’s not exactly pretty

The BMW i3 electric city car (pictured) has been officially revealed The BMW i3 – the first of BMW’s production ‘i’ electric cars – has finally been revealed at events in London, New York and Beijing as BMW plots its course to bring a premium electric city car to the world. Looking much like the original Mega City Concept, the i3 debuts a number of innovations from BMW – which are very clever – but it also debuts perhaps the worst looking BMW we’ve ever seen, with its incongruous lines, bulging bonnet, odd shapes on the flanks and slab-backed rear view. But what underpins the i3 is clever indeed, with a lightweight inner body made from carbon fibre and carbon fibre reinforced body panels providing the skin, all conspiring to make the i3 light – 1195kg, despite 25 per cent or so of that being batteries – and very rigid.

Entries in for 2012 LA Design Challenge

Final designs for the 2025 Highway Patrol Vehicle from worldwide design studios are in for the Los Angeles Auto Show Design Challenge. Design studios from BMW DesignWorksUSA, General Motors, Honda North America, Honda Japan, Mercedes-Benz and Subaru are fighting it out to be honored in the annual contest by showcasing their creativity and talent. This year's Design Challenge asked automotive design studios to create a highway patrol vehicle for 2025 that tackled the ‘protect and serve' aspect while considering emissions, population growth and transportation infrastructure.

Jean Bugatti's final project realized 73 years after his death

Legendary designer Jean Buggati's final unfinished project has finally been realized by the Mullin Automotive Museum, 73 years after his death. The Southern Californian Museum is devoted to the preservation of French art and automobiles from the Art Deco era, and has announced that the 1939 Bugatti Type 64 Coupe Chassis #64002 project is nearing completion. The museum – alongside Stewart Reed Design of Pasadena and Automobile Metal Shaping Company of Michigan – has added the swooping coupé body to the original chassis based on sketches left unfinished by Bugatti at the time of his death in 1939.