Outside Door Handle (dorman #77250) on 2040-parts.com

Middlecott Sketchbattle Experiment contest pits auto designers against Detroit talent

Local creative and design talent from outside and inside the car industry will go head-to-head in a multi-round competition for the title of Sketchmaster in the Middlecott Sketchbattle Experiment (MSBE). To be held at an underground afterparty for the Auto Show Charity Preview on 17 January at the Kunsthalle Museum in Detroit, the self-styled car design fight club will be attended by industry leaders, designers from Ford, GM, Chrysler, Toyota and Tier One suppliers. Car enthusiasts, artists and designers from around the globe will also be present.

Mitsubishi i MiEV Electric car launches in Japan

Mitsubishi i MiEV electric car launched in Japan at around £20,000 Until now, electric cars have been very much an oddity. The laughable G-Whiz and the Tesla Roadster are interesting in their own way, but unless you want to look like Noddy’s best friend (G-Whiz) or are happy to have a second-rate Lotus Elise at three times the price (Tesla), there wasn’t much to appeal to the normal car buyer. But it’s changing.

Bentley gets efficient: 2014 Hybrid Concept to cut CO2 emissions by 70%

It seems even the manufacturers of super luxury cars are now cottoning on to the fact that big multi-cylinder, gas-guzzling engines are set to be a thing of the past. Bentley, no less, has announced that it will be going hybrid in the future, marking the occasion with the reveal of its Hybrid Concept at the upcoming Beijing Motor Show 2014. Quite incredibly, the technology looks set to slash the firm’s CO2 output from limousine levels to rates we’re more accustomed to seeing from a small supermini.