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Who's Where: Martin Smith joins Ford Europe design team

Martin Smith has been appointed as Executive Director of Design at Ford Europe. Smith, a native of Sheffield, England, brings a wealth of design experience to Ford, having held positions at Porsche, Audi, and most recently as Director of Design for Opel/Vauxhall. In his new position, he will report to product development chief, Derrick Kuzak and to Ford's global group vice president for Design, J Mays.

2013 Nissan LEAF updated

Nissan has updated the LEAF EV in Japan for 2013 with better range, less weight and a new LEAF S entry-level model. Revealed in Japan – but likely to come to the UK from 2013 when the LEAF starts rolling out of Nissan’s Sunderland factory – there are significant upgrades to the powertrain which result in both less weight and better range. Nissan has had a play with the electric powertrain and made it both smaller and lighter with a new motor that uses 40 per cent less dysprosium (a rare earth metal) than before, and comes in 30 per cent smaller and 10 per cent lighter, and a new streamline battery case and a few other tweaks drops the LEAF’s weight by 80kg.

Saab pulls out of Frankfurt motor show

It's become a cliché in the automotive press to proceed Saab with the word 'troubled' recently. Yet the company's latest announcement does little to dispel the notion that all is not well in Trollhatten, as it has announced that it will not be featuring at September's Frankfurt auto show. The Swedish car manufacturer has had trouble paying suppliers in recent months, and it is thought that Saab will instead use the money allotted to Frankfurt in order to pay them.