Studio Focus: SAIC European Design Centre

SAIC European Design Centre Brands MG and Roewe Established 2010 (in current guise) Location Longbridge, UK Staff 35 Studio leader Martin Uhlarik SAIC's presence in Europe is limited at best through its MG brand, but if its sales are almost exclusively concentrated in its home Chinese market currently, MG's design roots are firmly planted in its spiritual British soil. All current Morris Garages cars – the MG6, 3 and 5 (in chronological order) as well as the CS concept shown at the Shanghai motor show in April – are products of SAIC's European Design Centre in Longbridge, near Birmingham in the English midlands, albeit finalized in Shanghai. The studio was opened in 2010 after a £5million investment in SAIC's UK Technical Centre but such are the ambitions of the company that it has already received a further £1.5million investment to almost double its size.

Maserati GS Zagato

This is a the one-off Maserati GS Zagato commissioned by the entrepreneur Paolo Boffi and due for its public debut at the Concours d'Elegance at the Villa d'Este, Italy on the 20th April, a year after the debut of the Zagato-designed Ferrari 575GTZ. This Zagato design is based on the platform of the Maserati Spyder which itself is based on a shortened platform of the recently replaced Coupe. The GS consciously evokes the classic Maserati A6 G Zagato of 1954 in its form, and like that design also has an all aluminium body.

Audi A1 – the ONLY premium Super Mini

Werner Zimmermann, Audi's Head of Quality, says the Audi A1 will be the only premium Supermini We’ve got a bit bored with the tease that is the Audi A1. After all, we have a pretty good idea what it’s all about and it seems to be being milked for all it’s worth. We did run the ‘Audi A1 Graffiti’ tease, and the ‘Audi A1 Design’ a few days ago.