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Ford's NA Design Director aims to shorten product lifecycles

Peter Horbury, Ford Motor Company North America Design Director, has told Automotive News he intends to shorten product lifecycles at the ailing company from an average five years to three years starting this decade. "We feel there is no value in minor changes but a huge value in major changes," Horbury told the industry weekly. Ford needs to ensure that buyers continue visiting showrooms as the giant automaker struggles to retain market share.

Fourth Chinese Auto Design Competition launched

The fourth Chinese Auto Design Contest officially launched in Beijing last week. Sponsored by China's Society of Automotive Engineers, the China Industrial Design Association, the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission and the Beijing Fengtai District People's Government, the competition is the largest and most authoritative state-level professional event. Held biennially, this year's Chinese Auto Design competition is divided into two categories: Design Innovation (which judges current vehicles created by automakers) and Creative Design.

Driven: Nissan Juke

Nowhere is the fragmentation of established market segments more evident than when thumbing through Nissan's current brochures. The new Nissan Juke, the smallest and most extreme member of Nissan's crossover range, is pitched as an 'urban proof' alternative to more conventional superminis. We took it to the streets to see how Nissan's scattershot small car strategy – which sees a range of four models occupying a similar space physically and fiscally – plays out.