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Chevrolet Bids Farewell To Europe

AMERICAN car giant General Motors has made a surprise announcement that from 2016 its Chevrolet brand will be no more in Europe. The company has stated that it wishes to concentrate on long established brands Opel and Vauxhall instead. All is not lost, as GM will keep what it says is its ‘iconic’ models such as the Corvette, while the firm intends to focus attention on its traditional American luxury brand Cadillac ahead of a greater European push in the next few years.

Italian design house Bertone nearing bankruptcy

The Italian design house Bertone is reportedly nearing bankruptcy again, according to a report from Autocar. The carrozzeria has experienced financial problems in 2008 and 2013, and even though it generated more than €20 million, or approximately $28 million, last year, the company reportedly laid off 160 employees recently. At least 30 workers who have been laid off have taken action against the company, seeking to recover monies owed to them.

Whos Where: David Wilkie joins Mindset

Design Director, David Wilkie, announced last week that he is leaving Bertone to take up a full time position at Mindset AG. Mindset is a new company run by Murat Günak, previously head of Design at Volkswagen, that is developing the electric ‘Commuter' car previewed by Car Design News in February this year. Car Design News spoke with Wilkie about the move, who explained that he'd been working for Mindset part time, leading the design of the Commuter interior for several months now, but "I decided that for the good of Bertone, and for Mindset, that I needed to commit full time to one position; and the appeal of having my hands-on as a designer was very strong; and it's a project I really want to see through properly!" Wilkie is still committed to carrying through several projects at Bertone over the next few weeks as he makes the transition to working with Günak with whom he studied at the Royal College of Art.