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Exclusive: Laurens van den Acker to replace Patrick le Quément at Renault

The wheels of change are continuing to turn within the automotive design industry, with yet another new appointment being made at the director level. According to industry insiders, Laurens van den Acker is set become the new Design Director at Renault when Patrick le Quément retires later this year. One of the most pre-eminent car designers in the world, Patrick le Quément began his design career at Simca, worked at Ford for 17 years and did a brief stint at Volkswagen before taking the top design job at Renault.

Ford improves simulators to help driver safety

Today's cars are loaded to the hilt with technology. Given modern vehicles' built-in opportunities for driver distraction, not to mention society's penchant for mobile-device use while motoring, it's a wonder we get home safely at all. To that end, Ford has upgraded its Virttex virtual-reality machine to study driver performance in the pursuit of safety devices and driver-aid development.

Volvo V40 gets new Drive-e D4 and T5 engines

The Volvo V40 (pictured) gets Volvo’s new Drive-e engines Last year Volvo revealed its new, efficient and flexible Drive-e engines and plans to offer them in the S60, V60 and XC60 with a 179bhp D4 and a 302bhp T6. Now, the new Volvo V40 is getting Drive-e powertrains. Both the V40 and the V40 Cross Country are getting Drive-e engine options, with both the D4 diersel and T5 petrol coming on-stream from May 2014.