Jaguar Land Rover to spend additional £250 million a year with UK suppliers

JLR to spend and extra £1 billion with UK suppliers The Range Rover Evoque phenomenon continues with Jaguar Land Rover announcing an extra £250 million additional annual spend with UK suppliers. Just last week we had the news that Land Rover’s Freelander 2 had hit sales of 300,000 since its launch in 2007, but if the Range Rover Evoque continues selling the way it has that figure will be eclipsed in half the time by the Evoque. And it’s sales of the Evoque – Land Rover has sold 60,000 Evoques in the first seven months on sale – that’s driving the need to spend more with suppliers and the announcement today that UK suppliers can look forward to an extra £250 million a year being spent to support the Evoque’s production at Halewood.

Audi settles 'Imported From Detroit' ad dispute with Eminem

Detroit charities have emerged as the victor in a dispute between Audi AG and Eight Mile Style LLC, the company that licenses Detroit rapper Eminem's songs, after Audi released a commercial in May that appeared to rip off of Eminem's "Imported from Detroit" Chrysler spot. "Audi has tremendous respect for Eminem and his works, and likewise for the 'Imported From Detroit' campaign which was created by Chrysler, and certainly Audi would never wish to insult or harm those parties or their fans and customers," the German automaker said Friday in a statement. Terms of the settlement weren't released, but as part of the agreement--which both parties said was reached "amicably"--Audi said it would "support the revitalization of Detroit by contributing to selected social projects." Audi didn't specify which organizations would benefit, but Joel Martin, of Eight Mile Style told the Detroit Free Press that a project "will be announced soon." "Just like 'Imported from Detroit' helped benefit charities like the Marshall Mathers Foundation, we as Eminem's publisher can give back to Detroit," Martin said, according to the newspaper.

Aston Martin One-77 (2009) wins top design prize at Villa d’Este

By Tim Pollard (photography by Mike Goodbun) First Official Pictures 27 April 2009 10:39 It’s having a long drawn-out gestation, but Aston Martin’s One-77 supercar made its world show debut at this weekend’s Villa d’Este, where it scooped the top prize for concept cars and prototypes. We’ll forgive you if you thought the One-77 had already been unveiled, but the car at Geneva was a technical cutaway rolling chassis – the first finished car is the one show in our photos above. The One-77 won more than 30% of the votes among the eight cars entered in its category.