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Weekly Recap: The divergent paths of Tesla and Fisker

There's no doubt that Tesla is downshifting while Fisker has been grinding its gears. But it wasn't always that way.
In the wake of Tesla's recent success, it's easy to forget that there were once two California electric carmakers with bright futures.

Behind the scenes of BMW's 'Drift Mob,' Part 1

Generally speaking, marketing and journalism don't mix, but every now and then, what goes into the marketing of a car - the 2015 BMW M235i, in this case - is worth documenting. In that spirit, we took BMW up on its offer to bring us behind the scenes of its upcoming "drift mob" video, starring five red M235i coupes frolicking around a traffic circle in a major world city (BMW has asked us to be coy about which one so as not to blow its cover before the shoot).
The five drivers can all be considered legends of modern-day drifting and stunt driving: Rhys Millen, Samuel Hübinette, Dai Yoshihara, Rich Rutherford and Conrad Grunewald.
As the only US media outlet in attendance, Autoblog plans to follow up with a full story on the experience once BMW polishes and releases the video in a month or so. In the meantime, check out our photos of this epic practice session we captured on our first day hanging with the crew, and be sure to watch this space for more behind-the-scenes action.

Next BMW 7 Series interior spotted

The next BMW 7 Series looks to be leading a rather dramatic change of the company's interior styling, judging by this new series of spy photos. In the trio of shots, we can see that the next 7 Series will replace the high-quality plastic buttons of the brand's iDrive, HVAC and secondary audio controls with some very, very pretty aluminum pieces. We can also see what looks like haptic touch controls for some of the HVAC systems. While the 7 Series interior has never been bad, it's lagged notably behind the Audi A8 and new Mercedes-Benz S-Class. This brightwork should be taken as a good sign, then, that BMW is preparing to take the fight to its countrymen. Aside from the handsome new switchgear, the large, wide nav screen looks like a pop-up unit, while it appears to be running a new version of the company's infotainment system. These spy photos also give us our most detailed look at the 7 Series' new laser headlights. According to our spies, these will be an optional extra, while LED headlights will be standard. The high-output lights will flank a wider pair of kidney grilles that our spies claim will give the 7 a sportier look. Changes in back are still camouflaged, although our shooters claim the new lamps will be more angular than the current car's. Expect the next 7 Series to make its debut in the second half of 2015, which could indicate a debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show.