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BMW announces DesignWorksUSA studio and ConnectedDrive lab in Shanghai

BMW has opened both a DesignWorks studio and a ConnectedDrive lab in Shanghai, China, as a means of gathering information and insight into the Chinese market as the company looks to increase its presence in Asia. Adrian van Hooydonk, Director BMW Group Design, said, "Creating this foothold for both BMW Group Design and DesignworksUSA in Shanghai is of great importance from both strategic and creative standpoints." President of BMW Group DesignWorksUSA Laurenz Schaffer said, "Our new studio in Shanghai places DesignworksUSA at the epicenter of the most rapidly growing and influential consumer market in the world and provides an indispensable resource for shaping our global perspectives for clients." The new studio will perform functions including product, transportation, automotive, environmental and interaction design; color, material and finish design; design communication, research and strategy as well as sustainability consulting. Designers from DesignworksUSA studio in Los Angeles, Munich and Singapore will supplement a local design team.

New Jeep Grand Cherokee facelift to get European debut at Geneva

The new Jeep Grand Cherokee will arrive at the Geneva Motor Show in EU guise in March ahead of a launch in the UK and Europe in the third quarter 2013. In all the ways that matter, the Jeep Grand Cherokee (which will be a 2014 model by the time it arrives in showrooms in the UK) for Europe is the same as that for North America, although it will have different engines, and just about all the shortcomings of the current Grand Cherokee have been addressed by the facelift. That means the cheap in places interior gets a good makeover to make the Grand Cherokee a more convincing place to be for European tastes, and the Atari-like Infotainment centre gets a proper makeover too to make it more 21st, and less 20th, century.

Audi planning their own version of the electric VW e-Up

Perhaps the most promising EVs from Audi so far have been the A2 EV (pictured above) and the A1 range extender with a small Wankel engine in the boot to charge the battery. But even they were dropped from Audi’s production plans last year. But now it seems Audi are back in the production EV game with plans to produce an Audi e-tron using the underpinnings of the electric VW e-Up, but with Audi styling and an upmarket Audi interior and high-end Infotainment.