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Volkswagen's de'Silva aims for positive influence on Porsche styling

Volkswagen Group design director Walter de'Silva hopes to add "something positive" to the design of Porsche's new models, beginning with the Cajun SUV. Porsche AG is set to become Volkswagen AG's 10th brand and Porsche design director Michael Mauer now reports to de'Silva, along with the heads of the styling centers of the other VW group brands such as Skoda, Seat, Bentley and Lamborghini. De'Silva said he has just started working with Mauer and their relationship is off to a good start.

Chevrolet six-month global sales highest in a century

Chevrolet saw 2.35 million global sales in the first six months of 2011--its best first-half mark in 100 years. The automaker credits the success of new small-car models for much of the growth, namely the Cruze compact, the Spark minicar, the Aveo/Sonic small car and the Orlando MPV. Chevrolet sales increased 14 percent in the United States from the same half-year period in 2010, with 286,499 more units sold.

Toyota to end Australian manufacturing in 2017

When Holden announced that it would no longer build cars in Australia after 2017, that country’s flagging automotive industry was effectively put on notice -- Mitsubishi had stopped building cars there in 2008, and Ford says its two plants there will close in October 2016. Now Toyota has announced that it has no option but to end vehicle Australian vehicle production. Like Holden, it will close its factories there in 2017.