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BMW announces DesignWorksUSA studio and ConnectedDrive lab in Shanghai

BMW has opened both a DesignWorks studio and a ConnectedDrive lab in Shanghai, China, as a means of gathering information and insight into the Chinese market as the company looks to increase its presence in Asia. Adrian van Hooydonk, Director BMW Group Design, said, "Creating this foothold for both BMW Group Design and DesignworksUSA in Shanghai is of great importance from both strategic and creative standpoints." President of BMW Group DesignWorksUSA Laurenz Schaffer said, "Our new studio in Shanghai places DesignworksUSA at the epicenter of the most rapidly growing and influential consumer market in the world and provides an indispensable resource for shaping our global perspectives for clients." The new studio will perform functions including product, transportation, automotive, environmental and interaction design; color, material and finish design; design communication, research and strategy as well as sustainability consulting. Designers from DesignworksUSA studio in Los Angeles, Munich and Singapore will supplement a local design team.

Illegal school parking 'should be fined'

DRIVERS who park illegally when dropping off or collecting their children from school should be fined. A large number of drivers (86%) say they agree with trials by councils to catch school run drivers who park on zig-zag lines at pedestrian crossings, even if they stop for only a few seconds. Several local councils, including Enfield in north London and York boroughs, are now using CCTV cameras to capture illegal parking.

New 2015 Mazda2 arrives

This is the new 2015 Mazda2 (Demio) The new Mazda2 was all but revealed at the Geneva Motor Show in March in the guise of the Mazda Hazumi Concept, but now the real new Mazda2 has arrived, or at least it has in Japan. But Mazda are captioning the photos – which are clearly of the Demio – as the Mazda2, so we can be pretty sure not much is going to change when the Demio gets the Mazda2 badge in the UK and Europe. That means the same Kodo design language Mazda has introduced across its range recently with a shield grill flowing in to the headlights, big wheel arches and horizontal lights at the back – all very much like the Hazumi.