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SAIC's Mobiliant wins 2013 LA Design Challenge

SAIC has been revealed as the winner of this year's LA Design Challenge. The Chinese carmaker's entry, a single-seat urban public transit vehicle, was declared the victor after intense judging sessions took place throughout the LA auto show's second press day. The panel – which included Tom Matano, executive director, School of Industrial Design at San Francisco's Academy of Art University, and Stewart Reed, chair of Transportation Design at Pasadena's Art Center College of Design – combed through the entries, discussing their merits and how closely they fit the brief, before hearing the teams' presentations in the afternoon.

Top 5 hatches of the 2014 Geneva motor show

By Ollie Kew First Official Pictures 05 March 2014 11:00 There’s a wildly diverse crop of new hatches at the 2014 Geneva motor show: a rear-drive city car, a firecracker of a crossover, new concept cars and even a lap time world record holder. Here are CAR’s Top 5 hatches of the 2014 Geneva show – and the customary dishonourable mention… The Mazda Hazumi concept is essentially what the new Mazda2 will look like when it hits showrooms – and it’s set to give the mainstream makes a proper fight. Mazda isn’t just on a styling roll of late – even the Mazda3 and Mazda6 are arguably the most handsome cars in their respective classes – but are building cars that are sensibly priced, affordable-to-run and damn good fun to drive.

BMW i3 revealed: The BMW Megacity lives

BMW i3 Revealed - on sale in 2013 The BMW i8 – also revealed today –  may be BMW’s answer to a supercar with a conscience for the 21st century, but the other end of the scale is the BMW solution to city mobility – the BMW i3. Known as the Megacity Vehicle – at least until BMW gave us all the detail of the i3 and i8 a few months ago – the BMW i3 is an upright box with a choice of pure electric or range-extender powertrains and is – in size – somewhere between the MINI and the current 1-Series. Just like the i8, the BMW i3 has a predominantly aluminium chassis and a body made of CFRP so it’s reasonably light for an EV (1270kg) and should be nimble thanks to its low centre of gravity which, just like the i8, is due to its batteries and the other heavy stuff sitting low down.