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Lotus to invest £500 million to build Esprit, Eterne, Elite & Elan. 1900 new jobs

The new Lotus Esprit Dany Bahar – Lotus boss – revealed plans at last year’s Paris Motor Show to turn Lotus in to an East Anglian Aston Martin. Those plans included one car we knew about – the new Lotus Esprit – and a number we didn’t – the Lotus Eterne, Lotus Elite, Lotus Elan and a new Lotus Elite. But the plans seemed to be nothing more than a wish list, and although it was intimated that Lotus owners Proton were going to provide a war chest of £770 million to fund the development, that later appeared to be an intent to provide Lotus with funds to develop a new range of cars, rather than an actual commitment.

Nissan ‘Think Outside the Parking Box’ competition

Nissan, in collaboration with designboom, has launched an international graphic design competition with a theme to design the future of urban parking. Entitled 'Think Outside the Parking Box', registration to the competition is open to professionals, students, and design enthusiasts until September 27th, 2009. Based around Nissan's Qashqai urban crossover - currently marketed as being 'urbanproof' - the brief calls for entries that challenge any element of urban parking, be it underground, exterior, interior, multi-layer or ground level.

A younger, sportier look for Mercedes-Benz pays off with U.S. customers

When it comes to design, Mercedes-Benz was long the conservative grande dame of luxury-car makers. Styling was understated and aimed at middle-aged buyers. But a shift toward sportier and more youthful styling, partly driven by U.S.