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Mini Vision concept: what does it say about the brand's future?

The sight of Mini design head Anders Warming presenting a holographic, 3D projection of the Mini Vision concept as if appearing in his own cartoon was certainly a new one on us, but it captured the quirky, slightly left-field image the subsidiary of BMW Group has cultivated since its relaunch 13 years ago. As the 'Vision' tag suggests, this is billed as a marker of intent for the brand's future design direction rather than a pre-production teaser of the new Mini hatchback (Cooper in most markets) we'll see later this year. However if the third-generation 'new' Mini doesn't look remarkably similar we'd be amazed, such is the level of productionized detailing on this purely digital model.

Ferrari 599 HTGE China Limited Edition

The Ferrari 599 HTGE China Limited Edition But time they are a changin’ (thank you Mr D.), and China has become a big market for purveyors of luxury goods, none more so than Ferrari. So sticking together a Limited Edition Ferrari for the Chinese market is an eminently sensible move for Ferrari, even if the dozen models of the China Limited Edition will be a mere drop in the ocean in a country which boasts a population of 1.3 billion and still rising. So it seems a reasonable bet that Ferrari will have no trouble selling the China 599 to the extremely wealthy who now sit at the top of China’s financial pecking order.

Toyota to close Australian design studio

Toyota designers at its Technical Center Asia Pacific Australia (TTCAP-AU) are to lose their jobs as part of Toyota's decision to scale back the facility's activities as well as halting all manufacturing within the country by 2017. The TTCAP-AU, which carries out all its Australian design and evaluation operations, employs 150 designers and modelers and it's possible that its activities with the Camry, Camry Hybrid and Aurion models could be scrapped, raising doubts over its future. Around 2,500 employees at Toyota's Altona manufacturing plant are expected to lose their jobs, although the effects are likely to be wider ranging.