Dramatic design on tap for next-generation model

Jaguar’s next-generation XJ luxury sedan will incorporate design features from the C-XF concept first shown at Detroit, AutoWeek has learned. Although prototypes captured by spy photographers are disguised with BMW-style grilles, the face of the new 2010 XJ will feature Jag’s gaping square grille and a curvaceous body with a rakish, coupelike rear window. The final XJ incorporates slim headlights with double-projector lenses that are very close in design to those revealed on the dramatic C-XF shown at the 2007 North American International Auto Show.

Saab gets approval for voluntary reorganization on appeal

...and Victor Muller smiles Victor Muller never says die, and the news that Saab has, after all, been granted the right to court protection from its creditors for a period of reorganisation has vindicated his stubborn refusal to give up on Saab. The Court of Appeal in Gothenburg has this morning overturned an earlier judgement by the District Court in Vänersborg which rejected Saab’s application to get the court’s protection during a period of ‘reorganisation’, which you can read as ‘Waiting for the dosh to arrive from China’. The news last week that Rachel Pang – a director of Pang Da, one of Saab’s putative investors – has come out in a very bullish way about the prospects for the investment by Pang Da and Youngman getting the final rubber stamp from China’s NDRC in Beijing won’t have harmed Saab’s case one bit.

Detroit Electric SP:01 (2014) nears production. The next Tesla?

By Tom Gregory Motor Industry 19 June 2014 11:26 New US based electric car maker, Detroit Electric, has been conducting final testing in Europe of its new SP:01 sports car.Described by Detriot Electric as the “world’s fastest production electric vehicle”, the rear-wheel-drive two-seat convertible is now nearing production having initially been unveiled in the USA and China last year. In a word, yes. Much like the equally electric Tesla Roadster, the SP:01 is built on the aluminium chassis of the Lotus Elise and as such, shares more than a passing resemblance with the Norfolk-built sports car.