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2020 Virtual Geneva Motor Show Editors' Picks

There may not have been an actual Geneva Motor Show this year, but there were still loads of car reveals that happened the week that the show would have happened. So we still wanted to highlight what our favorites of the would-be show. Our list of cars seemed to match the theme of the reveals, too, highlighting over-the-top supercars and forward thinking electric vehicles. Scroll down to see our favorites. Fifth Place: Aston Martin V12 Speedster - 21 points Managing Editor, Greg Rasa: Astons are works of art, and this one's ready for the Louvre. The design nods to Aston history are nifty. It looks like a jet fighter, except those have canopies. Not sure what 186 mph would be like in this, but don't try it in summer when there are bugs. Contributing Editor, Joe Lorio: Admittedly, this one is a little silly. A $950,000 sports car with no roof? A 700-hp two-seater with no windshield? But the offerings at the Geneva auto show have always tilted toward absurdity, and Aston’s V12 Speedster is endearingly outrageous as a fighter plane for the street. Third Place (Tie): Volkswagen ID.4 - 26 points Senior Producer, Chris McGraw: I don't have much to say about this other than I am a huge fan of more EVs coming to the market, which is why two-thirds of my picks are electric, including the ID.4. Producer, Alex Malberg: Any new fully-electric crossover is a vote for me. The fact it doesn't look terrible and VW will be including AWD later are bonuses.  Third Place (Tie): Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio GTA - 26 points Road Test Editor, Zac Palmer: Hard to argue with the logic of this one. The Giulia Quadrifoglio is already the best driver in this class of hot sedans, so why not extend the lead with a special model. That wing is Type R levels of high, and I completely approve. Associate Editor, Byron Hurd: Love this car. Love it, love it, love it. It's beautiful, aggressive and fast. I'd take it over an M3 or C63 any day. As cool as the GTAm is, though, I'd rather stick to the four-seat GTA. Something about a four-door car with two seats just doesn't really work for me. I haven't alienated ALL of my friends quite yet. Second Place: Hyundai Prophecy - 35 points Senior Editor, Green, John Snyder: I get whiffs of the Genesis Coupe from this sleek concept. I like the focus on form, with interesting details to discover if you look for them. West Coast Editor, James Riswick: Does it look like a Porsche? Sure, but Porsches look neat.

Former Audi chief designer Wolfgang Egger leaves Italdesign

The latest word from the international community of automotive designers has it that Wolfgang Egger is leaving Italdesign, but just where the accomplished designer will land next and who will take his place remain big question marks. Egger is a designer who has bounced back and forth between Italy and Germany over the course of his career. He was born in Germany but studied in Milan. He began his career at Alfa Romeo in 1989 and was named its chief designer by 1993 before being head-hunted by the Volkswagen Group in 1998 to head up the design department at Seat. A few years later he went returned to Italy to run the Lancia design department, and was subsequently renamed to the same post at Alfa Romeo. In 2007 he went back to his native Germany to head up the Audi design office, over which he assumed complete responsibility by 2012, but left Audi in 2013 to run Italdesign. For those unfamiliar, Italdesign is the studio founded by Giorgetto Giugiaro (pictured at left next to Egger) back in 1968 but which, along with many other Italian design houses, fell on hard times in recent years. The Volkswagen Group swooped in to rescue the troubled studio in 2010, turning it into something of an in-house advanced design department to provide an alternative perspective on the direction in which the group and its various brands could take their respective designs moving forward. With Egger now leaving its helm, Italdesign and its German parent company will need to find his replacement, and we're sure they'll announce one in due course. The bigger question on our minds, however, is where Egger himself will head next. Given the path his career has taken to date, we wouldn't be surprised to see him land elsewhere in the Volkswagen Group or find a new role in the expanding Fiat Chrysler Automobiles empire. Then again, Egger could find it time to open an entirely new chapter. Watch this space. News Source: Car Design NewsImage Credit: Newspress Design/Style Hirings/Firings/Layoffs Audi Volkswagen designer italdesign giugiaro wolfgang egger

Child cobalt miners: Automakers pledge ethical minerals sourcing for EVs

BERLIN - Leading carmakers including Volkswagen and Toyota pledged on Wednesday to uphold ethical and socially responsible standards in their purchases of minerals for an expected boom in electric vehicle production. Demand for minerals such as cobalt, graphite and lithium is forecast to soar in the coming years as governments crack down on vehicle pollution and carmakers step up their investments in electric models. To cover its plans for more than 80 new models by 2025, Volkswagen alone is looking for partners in China, Europe and North America to provide battery cells and related technology worth more than 50 billion euros ($59 billion). Talks with major cobalt producers, including Glencore, at VW's Wolfsburg headquarters last week ended without a deal. More than half of the world's cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country racked by political instability and legal opacity, and where child labor is used in mines. On Wednesday, a group of 10 leading passenger-car and truck manufacturers announced an initiative to jointly identify and address ethical, environmental, human and labor rights issues in raw materials sourcing. The partnership dubbed "Drive Sustainability" consists of VW, Toyota Motor Europe, Ford, Daimler, BMW, Honda, Jaguar Land Rover, Volvo Cars and truckmakers Scania and Volvo. The alliance "will assess the risks posed by the top raw materials (such as mica, cobalt, rubber and leather) in the automotive sector," said Stefan Crets of the CSR Europe business network. "This will allow Drive Sustainability to identify the most impactful activities to pursue" to address issues within the supply chain.Reporting by Andreas Cremer.Related Video: Image Credit: Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post via Getty Images Green BMW Ford Honda Jaguar Land Rover Mercedes-Benz Automakers Toyota Volkswagen Volvo Green Automakers Green Culture Electric Scania ethics mining