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Design Contest: Local Motors and Shell announce 'DRIVEN' [w/video]

Local Motors, the open-source car design community, has announced its latest competition. Working in collaboration with Shell Oils, the DRIVEN contest is an acronym for Design of Relevant and Innovative Vehicles for Energy Needs. Entrants are asked to create a car for one of five cities: Amsterdam, Bangalore, Basra, Houston or Sao Paulo.

Chrysler is set to invest $500 million in Toledo Jeep assembly plant

Chrysler Group plans to invest $500 million in its Toledo North Assembly Plant and hire a second shift of workers over the next year to build a new Fiat-based SUV for Jeep, as well as other vehicles. "This plant has been chosen to build the future Jeep SUV to replace the current Jeep Liberty that will be exported to markets all over the world," CEO Sergio Marchionne said at the plant Wednesday. "Jeep is at the heart of our plans to internationalize Chrysler, a process which is being accelerated by Chrysler's access to Fiat's distribution capabilities in Europe and Latin America." Toledo North is Chrysler's only assembly plant with only one shift of workers.

Lotus begins bespoke program with Mansory

Lotus is going bespoke with help from Mansory Design, the company said on Monday. Mansory has worked with Lotus on a few special editions before, including the 2011 Evora Concept Bespoke they showed at the 2011 Geneva motor show. Lotus says the car received positive reaction at the show.