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Global Automotive Forum hosts designer roundtable meeting in Chengdu, China

The second Global Automotive Forum took place last week in the Jiaozhi international conference center in Chengdu, one of the most important economic and transportation centers in Western China. The two-day event was based around the theme of 'Crossing from Producing to Innovation Country' and was attended by more than 80 people from the global automotive industry. While most of the sessions revolved around the greater automotive industry in China, Car Design News was asked to organize a session of the forum centered on design, which included a 'roundtable meeting' for designers.

“Where is the sustainable vehicle design?”

The notion of a 'new paradigm in car design' was a theme running through talks by five panelists at London's Royal College of Art last week, who debated "Seriously now, where is the sustainable vehicle design?" Despite disparate backgrounds, there was broad agreement that a truly sustainable form of personal transportation is unlikely to come from an established automotive firm any time soon. Panelist Rob Holdway of Giraffe Innovation was most vocal in his approach to the subject, saying "Frankly, I think the car is unacceptable - we hear a lot about the sustainable car, but I don't think there is such a thing as a sustainable car". The audience - made up mainly of RCA students - also heard from Nico Sergent of Riversimple about how the company's seven-point business model, and its open source strategy, incentivized the company to build a truly sustainable car and mobility package that the current auto model simply doesn't allow.

New Ford Mustang for Europe gets 500 orders in first 30 seconds

The new Ford Mustang (pictured) was much in demand. The new Ford Mustang effectively went on sale in Europe at the UEFA Champions League final at the weekend, and it was an overwhelming success for Ford. Not only did Ford get the first 500 registrations – enough for the entire initial European offering – in the first 30 seconds,  it ended up with a total of 9,300 registrations during the match, and Ford say the lucky 500 ‘winners’ – 130 of them in the UK – will be notified in the next few weeks if they’re getting a new Mustang.