BMW confirms its hiring of former Opel product chief Frank Weber

BMW AG confirmed it has hired Frank Weber, former head of product planning at General Motors Co.'s Opel/Vauxhall unit. Weber will become head of vehicle architecture and integration at BMW, a spokesman for the premium carmaker told Automotive News Europe today. The spokesman did not give details of when Weber will start at BMW.

Nissan creates 'scent of the future'

NISSAN has created what it calls ‘the scent of the future’, representing what Planet Earth might smell like in an imagined world where everyone drove zero-emissions vehicles. By teaming up with master perfumer and Aroma Academy Scientist Dr George Dodd, the firm has created its ‘aromatic blueprint’ for the future. Dodd, reportedly inspired by long walks in the Scottish Highlands, has created an in-car fragrance that he says is proven to inspire ‘a positive sense of well-being’ in people who smell it.

ICEM Style creative design software launched

ICEM Ltd, known for its ICEM Surf Class A surface development software, has launched ICEM Style, a new software product developed specifically for use by creative designers in the transportation design and industrial design industry. The launch presentation highlighted the integrated workflow from concept development in ICEM Style, through to refinement in ICEM Surf, enabling designers and engineers to share the same model data throughout the design process. According to ICEM, it is now possible, for the first time in a concept design tool, to design in a photo-realistic modelling environment, without using third-party visualisation products, or to wait for a static rendering to be generated.