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Interior Motives Design Conference 2006

A warm and sunny London was the venue for the second Design Conference organised by the UK-based magazine Interior Motives. The conference took place June 7-8 at the Museum in Docklands near Canary Wharf in the heart of the revitalized docklands area to the east of London and was enjoyed by around one hundred delegates from the international automotive design community.The two-day summit was chaired by educators from two design schools, as a way of deliberately promoting neutral yet informed discussions from the panel. Matteo Conti, Programme Leader of Transportation Design at Northumbria University introduced the speakers on the first day, while on day two Dave Muyres and Geoff Wardle from Art Center College of Design jointly chaired the session.

Octavia Greenline hits new fuel economy high

BUSINESS users on a budget have been given some good news with the announcement of a fuel-sipping new Skoda Octavia Greenline. Thanks to its inherently lighter third-generation chassis, the spacious Octavia is now capable of 88.3mpg in EU standard tests, which corresponds to just 85g/km of CO2. The amazing figures put the car on an emissions par with the likes of the Volkswagen Golf BlueMotion and even the supermini Kia Rio 1.1 diesel.

Mercedes-Benz hires BMW designer

Seems like the Mercedes-Benz design department is bulking up on new talent. Karim Habib, the exterior designer of the new BMW 7-series, has been lured to Mercedes-Benz where he will head up the advanced design studio on the outskirts of Stuttgart, Germany. Habib will work under Mercedes-Benz's new design boss, Gorden Wagener.