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Ford warms up new era of car-guy leaders

A minor temblor shook Dearborn, Mich., today with the announcement that Mark Fields, president of the Americas, climbed the golden corporate ladder to grab the chief operating officer ring, setting him up to succeed Alan Mulally in a couple of years. The move did not come as a shock-it only confirmed the whispers of auto industry Royal Watchers. The biggest news for those who care about cars, however, is two-fold: Jim Farley, Ford's global marketing boss, also takes the helm of Lincoln.

Who's Where: John Puskar and Liz Wetzel appointed to new roles at GM Design

As part of an ongoing strategy at General Motors, this past month has seen a series of moves taking place within the company's design organization in Europe and the US. Two of the key changes have been the appointment of John Puskar to the role of Director of Cross-Brand Strategy, C&T and Components in North America, and that of Liz Wetzel, who has been named Director of GME Design Interior – effectively filling Puskar's role. Puskar, who until recently headed the Opel/Vauxhall Interior Design at the European Design Center in Russelsheim, Germany, majored in Industrial Design at the Cleveland Institute of Art and worked at Ford in both the USA and Germany before joining General Motors as a creative designer at the GMC Brand Center in 1999.

Honda Small Sports EV Concept

Honda has released these renders of the Small Sports EV Concept it hopes will be the star of the upcoming Tokyo Motor Show. Very few details of the compact sports car have been revealed, but it looks to be similar in size to the Mazda MX-5, but with an almost monovolume silhouette, with virtually no transition from hood to windscreen at the front and a pair of buttresses that extend from the top of the seats to the trailing edge of the rear deck. The front mask features full-width blue lighting and a glazed 'grille', which appear to becoming visual identifiers for EVs.