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Alfa Romeo goes rear-drive; eight new cars by 2018 including 4C Cloverleaf

By Damion Smy Motor Industry 06 May 2014 15:51 Alfa Romeo has confirmed the news first broken exclusively by CAR in July 2013: the Italian brand will make a dramatic shift from front-drive hatches like the Mito and Giulietta, and instead develop a new range of rear- and all-wheel sports saloons, SUVs and sports cars. Announced in Detroit at Fiat-Chrysler HQ, Alfa Romeo chief technology officer Harald Wester revealed the mantra for the brand includes pushing volumes up from 74,000 sales in 2013, to around 400,000 by 2018. Alfa Romeo is investing around €5bn in the project, the first fruits of which will be the new Giulia saloon, a 3-series rival that will go on sale in autumn 2015.Read our scoop of Alfa's strategy here That’s right.

Peugeot Exalt concept to bring shark skin suit to Beijing

Peugeot has 'accidentally' leaked an image of its Exalt concept car ahead of its debut at the Beijing auto show next Sunday. The four-door sedan follows the form language introduced by the 2010 SR1 concept, but is perhaps most closely related to the Onyx of 2012 in terms of execution if not format. As with the Onyx, the Exalt features a series of innovative, natural materials – something PSA design director Jean-Pierre Ploué confirmed to Car Design News would become a Peugeot hallmark – including an exterior surface finish inspired by shark skin.

Video: Chris Bangle delivers “Empowerment: Design without Designers” talk at Creative Mornings/London

Chris Bangle – the undisputed front man of car design – needs little introduction, so the prospect of the former BMW Design Director and now founder of Chris Bangle Associates giving a talk in our home town of London was too good to pass up. His presentation (which you can watch in full in the video to the left) touched on his time at BMW, but was more focused on the idea of empowering others to create: "design without you in the middle", as Bangle says. From the story of the co-creation of the staircase in his Italian studio to the idea of encouraging people to think about their culture when designing, his philosophies transcend disciplines.