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Feds researching fire risks from EV batteries, regulator says

Federal safety regulators have begun an $8.75 million study of whether lithium ion batteries in electric vehicles pose a potential fire hazard, officials said Thursday. Kevin Vincent, chief counsel of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said researchers are looking at whether the high-voltage batteries can cause fires when they are being charged and when the vehicles are in an accident.

New 2014 Audi A3 Cabriolet revealed ahead of Frankfurt

The new 2014 Audi A3 Cabriolet (pictured) arrives in the UK next spring. The new Audi A3 Cabriolet has been revealed, and it’s bigger, lighter and better looking than before. Based on the underpinnings of the new A3 Saloon, rather than the A3 hatch as before, means the new A3 Cabriolet has better proportions, a bigger boot, more room and yet weighs in at around 50kg less than the old model.

Video: Chris Bangle delivers “Empowerment: Design without Designers” talk at Creative Mornings/London

Chris Bangle – the undisputed front man of car design – needs little introduction, so the prospect of the former BMW Design Director and now founder of Chris Bangle Associates giving a talk in our home town of London was too good to pass up. His presentation (which you can watch in full in the video to the left) touched on his time at BMW, but was more focused on the idea of empowering others to create: "design without you in the middle", as Bangle says. From the story of the co-creation of the staircase in his Italian studio to the idea of encouraging people to think about their culture when designing, his philosophies transcend disciplines.