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Interior Motives Awards 2012 judges decide shortlist

The Interior Motives Awards 2012 judging panel has whittled down a huge amount of entries into this year's competition to a shortlist of potential winners. The list can be viewed here. Over 160 aspiring young designers from 47 schools in 17 countries entered the competition, reflecting the growing recognition of the importance of the Interior Motives Student Design Awards among would-be vehicle designers.

Bentley SUV: first picture revealed

Bentley has revealed the first official image of its new SUV, which is due to go on sale in 2016. Although the new car is effectively set to rival the upper end of the Range Rover model line-up, Bentley is keen to emphasise the new SUV’s exclusivity, saying that it will be the most luxurious and powerful SUV on the market. Speaking at a press conference in London today, Dr Wolfgang Schreiber, chairman and chief executive at Bentley Motors, said: “It will create a completely new segment in the SUV market.” First revealed as the EXP 9 F concept car back at the Geneva Motor Show in 2012, the new SUV will be crucial to Bentley as it looks to increase its sales over the next few years.

Umea Olme Spyder project

While Swedish automaker Saab was going through tumultuous times and Geely was in the process of buying Volvo from Ford, first year MA students in Transportation Design at Sweden's Umea Institute of Design were busy creating a one-off roadster for an independent car maker: the Olme Spyder. Created in collaboration with Ove Bengtsson, an engineer with a personal passion for building his own vehicles, the students were asked to design their own interpretation of a progressive and innovative roadster, developing the concept from a sketch into a full-scale model. Based on an Opel Agila donor car, the concept's 650kg steel monocoque chassis was created by Bengtsson himself to accommodate a mid-mounted engine.