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Michael Mauer appointed head of design at Porsche

Porsche AG has anounced the appointment of Michael Mauer to take over as chief designer from Harm Lagaay, who will retire on July 1 after 15 years in the post. Michael Mauer, 41, studied automobile design at Pforzheim University, and started his career at Mercedes-Benz. In 1989, he was appointed design project leader for the Mercedes V Class models, and was in charge of design work for the first SLK model generation.

Volvo V60 Plug-in Hybrid (2012): first details

Volvo will unveil its new V60 Plug-in Hybrid at the 2011 Geneva motor show in March. The new Volvo V60 Plug-in Hybrid is described as 'virtually production-ready' and will be built and sold by the Swedish car company from 2012. Driving the front wheels through a six-speed automatic is an upgraded version of Volvo's 2.4-litre five-cylinder D5 engine: power and torque goes up from 202bhp and 309lb ft to 213bhp and 325lb ft.

Kia Proceed (2012) first offical pictures

Kia will launch the next derivative of the Ceed at the Paris motor show: the Proceed three-door model. It follows the Sportswagon estate and regular hatch, and will likely keep the same range of four-cylinder engines and six-speed gearboxes. The 2012 Kia Proceed three-door Like the last Proceed, the new car gets an unfortunately silly name, which we won't dignify with its shameful grammar here.