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BMW and Local Motors join forces for latest contest

BMW and Local Motors have come together to launch the Urban Driving Experience Challenge, which launches on 25 September. The contest challenges designers to create the premium vehicle features and functions that will shape the urban driving experience in 2025 and beyond. The Mega Cities of the future will offer a number a new challenges for the automotive industry, such as increasing urbanization, rapid population growth, changing infrastructures and environmental pollution.

Porsche Macan caught on video

The Porsche Macan – a Porsche Cayenne on a boil wash – has been spied out testing and caught on video. We’ve seen spy photos of the Porsche Macan before – Porsche’s take on the Audi Q5 – and they look more like a cut down Cayenne being used as a mule for the Macan’s underpinnings than an actual Macan. But it seems that the shots so far are actually the Macan as it’s heading for production, which means Porsche has, perhaps unsurprisingly, chosen the 911 school of car design as its inspiration for the Macan and just stuck a Cayenne on a boil wash.

Future products: Kia seeks lively, upscale look

Kia's redesigned Optima sedan and the Cadenza replacement for the Amanti, both due next year, reflect an emphasis on creating a livelier and more upscale look for the once-bland brand. Indeed, styling has been a crucial element of Kia's new-product push in the past 18 months. The team at Kia Design Center America near Los Angeles--part of the automaker's global design network led by onetime Audi design chief Peter Schreyer--has helped set the new styling direction.