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Who's Where: Ken Okuyama parts company with Pininfarina

Pininfarina, the Turin, Italy-based automotive styling house, has announced that its design director, Ken Okuyama, has left the company. In a tersely-worded statement Pininfarina said, "The Company's decision comes as a result of the various external activities Ken Okuyama was carrying out beyond his responsibilities within Pininfarina." Ken Okuyama had been Design Director at Pininfarina since July 2005. During this time, Okuyama's most high-profile work was the Maserati Birdcage prototype, created to celebrate 75th anniversary of the Italian styling house.

BMW i3 LWB and i8 Roadster planned; BMW i4 & i5 mooted

BMW are already planning more of the BMW-i Range You didn’t really think that BMW would stop with just the BMW i3 City car and the BMW i8 supercar, did you? Surely not, especially after we told you last year that BMW had trademarked all the i-numbers – i1 through to i9. Those BMW i trademarks would suggest that BMW are planning on having at least a pair of cars that sit below the compact i3 – a bit hard to really figure out what they will be – and perhaps a halo grand saloon at the top in the i9.

New York, California first to get electric Focus

Customers in New York and California will be the first to take delivery of the 2012 Focus EV, according to a message posted on a Focus Forum from Ford marketing. That also explains some new material from the company which says, "2012 Focus electric; coming spring 2012." The Focus will launch in 19 markets, including Chicago, Detroit and Seattle, but it will hit the coasts first. In the www.myfocuselectric.com forum, Ford's electrified-vehicles marketing manager David Finnegan broke the news.