Land Rover Defender to be built in Sri Lanka

The Land Rover Defender is to be built outside the UK in a new plant in Sri Lanka to produce Defenders for the region. Land Rover are assisting and training staff at a new assembly plant in Hambantota, Sri Lanka, run by Sathosa Motors PLC in a 50-50 deal with Land Rover distributors SML Frontier Automotive, with $1 million being invested to get the project up and running this year. It seems clear from the level of investment that this is simply an assembly operation using CKD kits from the UK for the Defender, but Sri Lank’s Daily News is reporting that there are plans to invest $500 million in the project.

2014 McLaren 650S: pictures and full details

The McLaren 650S has been revealed ahead of its official debut at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show next month. The new model is based on the existing 12C and McLaren says that it bridges the gap between that car and its P1 ‘hypercar’. Prices start at £195,000 for the 650S coupe and £215,000 for the convertible 650S Spider and represent a premium of about £20,000 over the equivalent 12C and 12C Spider models.

BMW Guggenheim Lab

With many surveys suggesting the world's automobile buyers are growing younger and more urban, saavy automobile companies are rushing to show their concern with cities, the future - and the future of cities. In New York City recently, black Audi A8s recently ferried 'influencers' to the Lower East Side area around the New Museum to attend an Audi supported Urban Future Initiative part of the area's Festival of Ideas. The Volkswagen Group and the Museum of Modern Art promise a major announcement of future cooperation, on May 23, and BMW recently announced that it is supporting the Guggenheim Museum in a six-year, nine-city endeavor called the BMW Guggenheim Lab.