Dorman 264-032 Oil Pan (engine) on 2040-parts.com

Exclusive: The Designers Pt1 – Gorden Wagener, Mercedes-Benz

Car Design News launched its first ever Car Design Review yearbook at the Geneva motor show, featuring the award-winning Production Car and Concept Car Designs of 2013. Over the next three months we'll be publishing – in their own words – world-exclusive interviews with the 12 professional design judges involved in these awards, featuring their individual votes, their views on the year just gone plus their hopes for the year ahead. Kicking off the series is vice-president of design for Mercedes-Benz, Gorden Wagener, talking up the global recovery, exciting new Mercedes design studios and why a certain Pininfarina coupé was his favorite concept of 2013...

Peugeot 2008 Crossover already selling well in UK – and half are White

More than half of UK sales of the new Peugeot 2008 (pictured) are white cars The Peugeot 2008 – the crossover/SUV take on the new 208 – arrived in production guise at the Geneva Motor Show in March and looked a properly credible effort from the beleaguered French car maker. In fact, when Peugeot announced prices for the 2008 and their UK target sales of 8,000 a year, we thought they were being conservative with their projections, especially as the 2008 starts at a very reasonable £13k. That soon proved to be right when Peugeot announced it was having to double production of the 2008 as sales were much stronger across Europe than they’d anticipated, and it seems the same is happening in the UK.

GM plants solar field at Chevrolet Volt factory

Looking to put a charge in its eco-friendly image, General Motors is installing a 264,000-square-foot solar field at the Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant that builds the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid sedan. The solar field, being built in cooperation with utility DTE Energy, will generate 516 kilowatts. GM says that’s enough power to charge up 150 Volts every day for a year.