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BMW i3 EV revealed. It’s clever, but it’s not exactly pretty

The BMW i3 electric city car (pictured) has been officially revealed The BMW i3 – the first of BMW’s production ‘i’ electric cars – has finally been revealed at events in London, New York and Beijing as BMW plots its course to bring a premium electric city car to the world. Looking much like the original Mega City Concept, the i3 debuts a number of innovations from BMW – which are very clever – but it also debuts perhaps the worst looking BMW we’ve ever seen, with its incongruous lines, bulging bonnet, odd shapes on the flanks and slab-backed rear view. But what underpins the i3 is clever indeed, with a lightweight inner body made from carbon fibre and carbon fibre reinforced body panels providing the skin, all conspiring to make the i3 light – 1195kg, despite 25 per cent or so of that being batteries – and very rigid.

New Audi A3 price from £19,205

Audi has revealed that the new 3 door Audi A3 will cost from £19,205 with first UK cars due in September 2012. The new Audi A3 debuted at the Geneva Motor Show back in March and, despite looking almost the same as the old A3, is actually an all new offering from Audi. The new A3 gets a longer wheelbase thanks to the new MBQ platform, which gives more cabin room despite the almost coupe-like looks and a drop in weight thanks to aluminium bumpers and bonnet and high-strength steel.

Who's Where: Craig Metros heads back to Michigan to become Ford's exterior design director of The Americas

Craig Metros is heading back to his native Michigan to take up a new position as Ford's exterior design director of The Americas. Metros leaves his current role as design director of Ford Asia Pacific in the company's Melbourne studio in Australia, where his team led the Everest, Falcon and Ranger programs. During Ford's PAG (Premier Auto Group) era, the CCS graduate was the first American designer to work in the Jaguar design studio in the UK before returning to America to lead the interior and exterior design themes of the 2004 Ford F-150.