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Exclusive: Laurens van den Acker to replace Patrick le Quément at Renault

The wheels of change are continuing to turn within the automotive design industry, with yet another new appointment being made at the director level. According to industry insiders, Laurens van den Acker is set become the new Design Director at Renault when Patrick le Quément retires later this year. One of the most pre-eminent car designers in the world, Patrick le Quément began his design career at Simca, worked at Ford for 17 years and did a brief stint at Volkswagen before taking the top design job at Renault.

Nissan Patrol breaks obscure Guinness World Record

The Nissan Patrol, a cooler-looking version of the Infiniti QX80 with a Nissan front end, broke a Guinness World Record on Thursday at Sharjah International Airport in the UAE. The nearly 3-ton truck pulled a 170.9-ton cargo plane for more than 164 feet (50 meters), breaking the previous record for “Heaviest aircraft pulled by any production vehicle” by 15 tons. The previous record was attributed to the Volkswagen Touareg that pulled a Boeing 747 at 155 tons.

Ford to launch 25 new models in Europe in next 5 years

The new Ford S-mAx (pictured) is just one of 25 new Fords heading for Europe Ford of Europe has had a miserable time of late, with the European market in disarray as the Eurozone crisis continues to rumble and car buyers on the continent shy away from big ticket purchases. But, just as they did in the US, Ford are making plans to cash-in when the Eurozone economy improves in the coming years (not that that’s an absolute given) and are going to ready with a raft of new models to tempt mainstream buyers when economies start to grow and car finance becomes a realistic option for more once again. Barb Samardzich, Ford’s head of product development in Europe, says Ford are planning to make their portfolio of products the best ever in anticipation of a recovery, with a huge 25 new models launching over the next five years, and they will be additions to the Ford line-up or new generations, not variants.