Kia's chief designer seeks a sporty car to blow the doors off its image

Kia's design boss wants to add a sports car or convertible to lend more appeal to the brand. No such car is officially in the pipeline, said Peter Schreyer, Kia's chief design officer. Kia first needs to get on more solid footing, he said.

General Motors names Mary Barra to head global product development

General Motors named Mary Barra head of global product development on Thursday, succeeding Tom Stephens, who was named global chief technology officer of the automaker on Wednesday. An engineer, Barra, 49, is the first woman to hold the top product development job at GM. Since 2009 she has served as vice president of global human resources for GM--a key post as the automaker restructured and emerged from bankruptcy protection.

SAIC merges with Nanjing

By Keith Adams Motor Industry 28 December 2007 15:27 Is the Chinese car industry learning to rationalise?  Absolutely. In order to attack world markets, China’s government and its largest automotive players have been getting cute. There’s a rush to merge or combine in order to compete in international markets.