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News watch March 2011: today's auto industry news

Welcome to CAR Magazine's news aggregator as we round up the daily stories in the auto industry. Top tip: news summaries are added from the top hour-by-hour Thursday 31 March 2011• US President Barack Obama has strated all US government cars and trucks purchased from 2015 must be alternative-fuel vehicles (Automotive News)• Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn has denied a report in Japan's Nikkei newspaper that he is leaning towards a formal merger of Nissan and Renault (Reuters)• Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne says that Chrysler's share IPO may now take place in 2012, depending on financial progress this year (Bloomberg)Wednesday 30 March 2011• Tesla CEO Elon Musk has called a report that the EV carmaker is a takeover target 'bad analysis' and remains confident the firm will stay independent (Bloomberg)• The BBC denies that it rigged a December 2008 Top Gear TV test of the Tesla Roadster, in response to being sued by the EV carmaker (BBC News)• First Group, the UK's largest public transport operator, has announced a £160m investment in new buses, ordering 955 new buses from UK manufacturers Wrightbus and Dennis over the next two years (BBC News)• Japanese production woes look set to continue into April. Toyota expects the majority of Toyota and Lexus production on 14 April (Automotive News)• Saab production has re-started again, following a half yesterday afternoon.

Mercedes GLA crossover (2013) at Frankfurt motor show

This is the new Mercedes GLA crossover, an A-class in combat trousers and hiking boots. Previewed by the Concept GLA displayed at Frankfurt earlier in 2013, the production GLA is available with two- or four-wheel drive, manual or twin-clutch transmissions, and a range of four-cylinder petrol and diesel engines shared with the A-class hatch. Mercedes GLA: the styling In principle, the GLA is an A-class on stilts, and in the metal, that’s exactly what it looks like.

Chris Bangle's ‘Illustrate the Future’ competition winner announced

Renowned designer Chris Bangle announced the winner of the ‘Illustrate the Future' design competition as Luis Fernando Peña Delgado at the end of the Interior Motives China conference yesterday. 22-year-old Delgado, a student of design at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogota, Colombia, was chosen by the judges under the direction of Bangle on the basis that his entry best followed the criteria of closeness to the original text, the quality of the illustrations and the creative content. The global competition's brief asked for students from any design discipline to examine excerpts from the eBook "Peter Teuful, A Tale of car design in Three parts" – written by Bangle himself – and translate them into a series of images.