Denso 234-4093 Oxygen Sensor on 2040-parts.com

Car Design of the Year Awards 2007

What was your favorite car design from 2007? Here's your chance to vote for your favorite designs and CDN will present an award to the winning design teams. For the next four weeks, Car Design News is asking its readers to vote for their favorite car designs from the last twelve months.

Kia Car Design Award winners announced in Beijing

The first Kia Car Design Award was successfully concluded on 20 May in Beijing, with Chinese student Li Bai being presented the prize for first place by Seon-Ho Youn, Vice President of Kia Design Center. Bai, from Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts, became the first ever winner of the award for his Kia Rhyme Concept, described by Seon-Ho Youn as "a perfect combination of design and Chinese culture." Bai's luxury sports car concept was inspired by Chinese philosophy, which can be seen in the headlamp design that reflects the traditional Chinese Ba gua, or ‘Eight Diagrams'. These are eight diagrams used in Taoist cosmology that represent the fundamental principles of reality through three lines, each line either 'broken' or 'unbroken', representing either yin or yang.

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.