CAR interviews Seat design chief Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos (2012)

At September’s Paris motor show, CAR interview Seat Head of Design Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos, quizzing him on the new Leon, Toledo, future SEAT concepts, and his design inspirations. Read our chat in full here. CAR: How much flexibility does the VW Group’s new MQB shared platform offer you as a designer?

British EV prototype competes for $10m prize

A Silverstone-based company has emerged as the only British (and European) contender for the $10m Automotive X-Prize, a competition to find the most environmentally friendly car on the planet. Delta Motorsport’s E-4 Coupe concept has been accepted into the next stage of the X-Prize competition and the company now has to prepare a fully functioning prototype. Backed by an American insurance company, the X-Prize was set up to 'inspire a new generation of viable, super-efficient vehicles that help break our addiction to oil and stem the effects of climate change'.

Toyota Aygo gets new engine technology to make it more economical

The new Toyota Aygo (pictured) gets new engine tech The new Toyota Aygo has only just arrived as Toyota’s part of the city car triumvirate which includes the new Citroen C1 and new Peugeot 108, but its already set to get improvements. Toyota have been playing with the little 1.0 litre three-cylinder that lurks under the bonnet of the majority of Aygos, and have managed to do some serious tweaking. The tweaks include a higher compression ratio of 11.5:1, a cooled exhaust gas recirculation system, changes to the timing, better combustion, less friction and lower weight.