Blower/heater Motor 2015 Altima Sku#1872745 on 2040-parts.com

EV charging points 'to top 100,000 by 2020'

THERE will be more than 10 times the number of electric car charging points as petrol stations by 2020 – and that’s just one of the planned networks. According to POD Point CEO Erik Fairbairn, the conditions are beginning to emerge to allow electric and plug-in hybrid cars to flourish, leading to an explosion in charge point installations in the coming years that could top 100,000 just in POD Point’s own infrastructure. There are currently fewer than 9,000 petrol stations on British roads.

First Sight: Mercedes-Benz SL

The new high-tech, low weight Mercedes SL roadster receives its official global unveil next week in Detroit but Car Design News got an early peek of the final production car and had a chat with its designers at Mercedes' US advanced design studio in Carlsbad, California back in November. "We want to get back to clean, long-lasting design," director of Mercedes global advanced design and SL project leader, Steffen Kohl told CDN at the exclusive preview of the sixth-generation model. "So the new SL is long, sleek and still full of tension in the feature lines but less wedgy." In a short presentation Kohl felt all SLs became successfully iconic in their times because they followed two key rules – ‘sensuality' and ‘cleanness' – but alluded that the first rule may have been lost in more recent eras.

Giles Taylor appointed Head of Exterior Design at Rolls-Royce

Rolls-Royce will be welcoming Giles taylor as its a new Head of Exterior Design in April this year. Taylor, who has spent the last 10 years in British automotive design roles and headed up the design team who created the XK and XJ model series under the direction of Ian Callum at Jaguar, will fill the vacant position in the Rolls-Royce design team. He will be based in West Sussex, UK, and report to Rolls‑Royce's Chief Designer, Ian Cameron.