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Bangle urges auto design shakeup, says industry not innovating

Controversial designer Chris Bangle, the man behind the notorious E65 BMW 7-Series "Bangle Butt," has some rather sharp criticism for the current crop of automotive designers in an upcoming full-length interview with Automotive News Europe. The preview, posted on Automotive News, details parts of the interview, with the always vocal Bangle lamenting the state of modern automotive design.
"Even concept cars today simply anticipate the next production model coming down the line. Is this innovation? No. And at the end of the day this is what's preventing car design from moving into a new era." Controversial as Bangle's design philosophy may be, we can't help but think he has a point. His so-called "flame surfacing" at BMW and other stylistic elements had a huge influence on modern automotive design, although as the years have passed, there hasn't been much innovation on the same scale.
Interestingly, Bangle also mentions that he's been courted by a few manufacturers that wanted to install the American as the head of their design teams. He's flatly rejected them, telling ANE, "It's not something you can do part time, you have to do it with all your heart and soul or you're going to get it wrong."

Watch the BMW M4 drift around an aircraft carrier

A Nimitz-class American aircraft carrier is big. Really, really big. After all, it has to be, in order to launch and recover a wide array of military aircraft. But when it's not catapulting F/A-18 Super Hornets and E-2 Hawkeyes into the wild blue yonder, what exactly can you use its 1,040-foot long flight deck for? Well, BMW seems to have an idea.
Now, obviously BMW hasn't paid Uncle Sam to convert the deck of the USS John C. Stennis into a racetrack (but what an idea!). That doesn't make this video of an Austin Yellow M4 slipping and sliding its way around the carrier deck any less entertaining. The video itself comes, weirdly considering the US aircraft carrier, from BMW of Canada, and we aren't really sure what the point of it is. There's no voiceover, or title or closing screens to lend the scene any context, and it seems unlikely that this sort of seemingly high-dollar video wouldn't be done sheerly for giggles. Whatever the reason for its existence, it's worth a watch.
Scroll down and have a look.

BMW ups i3 production to 100 units a day to meet demand

To reverse the old Field of Dreams quote, they are coming, so BMW is building them. All indications are that US demand for the BMW i3 plug-in will be larger than initially expected. As a result, the automaker is upping production at its German factor by more than 50 percent in advance of stateside sales, Automotive News says, citing BMW boardmember Harald Krueger. BMW has started making about 100 i3s a day, up from its previous daily rate of about 70 units. So far, BMW, which is expected to begin sales of the i3 in the US later this month, has made about 5,000 i3s. BMW spokesman Dave Buchko confirmed in an e-mail to AutoblogGreen that the company was boosting production of the i3 based not only on US demand but on worldwide demand, but he declined to be specific about BMW's new production rate. BMW started selling the i3 in Europe in November and had racked up a six-month waiting list by early February. Last month, Norbert Reithofer, chairman of the board of management for BMW, estimated that the company would be making a cool 100,000 i3s a year by the end of the decade, and that the global automotive market would support that production level. Check out our First Drive of the i3 here.