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Chief designer Walter de Silva out at Volkswagen

After decades of penning beautiful machines, Volkswagen Group design boss Walter de Silva will retire at the end of November but will still hold an advisory role. He has led the styling for the automotive giant's brands since 2007. The company's statement didn't announce a successor for him. De Silva began his design career at Fiat in 1972 and led styling at Alfa Romeo from 1986 to 1998. He first joined VW Group with Seat but made a big splash at Audi in 2002. His work there included the sixth-generation A6, A5, and the fantastic R8. Later, he created a great take on the classic Leica M9 camera, too. VW praised de Silva's creation of a design culture that spanned its division but still allowed for creativity within each one. "Walter de Silva epitomizes creativity and the Italian sense of beauty and style on the one hand and thoroughness, a systematic approach and discipline on the other," CEO Matthias Muller said in the announcement. De Silva's retirement could bring a major change in the way VW Group organizes its studios, according to Automotive News. The automaker reportedly wants to cut its annual styling budget and might not seek a replacement for him. Walter Maria de Silva takes retirement Head of Group Design established common design culture across all brands while retaining creative autonomy of each individual brand Walter Maria de Silva Walter Maria de Silva Walter Maria de Silva (64), Head of Group Design, is retiring with effect from the end of November. De Silva assumed design responsibility for all passenger car brands within the Volkswagen Group in February 2007. Walter de Silva will continue his links with the Group in an advisory capacity. Walter Maria de Silva was born in Lecco (Italy) on February 27, 1951 and joined the Volkswagen Group 17 years ago when he became Head of the SEAT Design Centre in 1998. He was put in charge of the design of the Audi brand group, including the brands Audi, Lamborghini and SEAT, in 2002. His new design language with Audi was epitomised by the 6th generation of the Audi A6 and Audi A5 Coupe. He was appointed Head of Group Design at Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft in 2007. Walter de Silva saw the main focus of his work as design chief in establishing and nurturing a common design culture across all brands, which nevertheless allows each brand to retain a high degree of creative autonomy.

Audi RS3 sedan spied testing at the Nurburgring

Although American enthusiasts often miss out on foreign forbidden fruit, we've known for a while that the Audi RS3 will probably make it to the United States in 2017. While there's been no official word, Audi of America CEO Scott Keogh has made it clear he wants to bring the car over. Audi already sells the handsome RS3 Sportback in Europe, but since European hot hatches don't tend to fly here it will most likely come only as a sedan. Now we have spy shots to drool over. View 7 Photos These gallery above shows the 2016 RS3 Sportback that sits at the top of the range in Europe. The RS3's turbocharged five-cylinder engine sends power through Audi's quattro all-wheel drive system, propelling the car to 62 mph in just over four seconds. We can only make an educated guess as to what will power the RS3 sedan. Quattro all-wheel drive is a given, as is turbocharging. The European RS3 Sportback comes with a seven-speed dual-clutch that will probably make it to the US. In that car, the transmission is fed by a 2.5-liter turbocharged inline five-cylinder engine making 362 horsepower and 343 pound-feet of torque. Rumors suggest that Audi will make up for lost time by giving us the 400-hp inline-five that powers the new TT RS. These spy photos show a black RS3 sedan ripping around the Nurburgring, partially covered in camouflage. Through the camo we can see all of the basic hallmarks of Audi's RS line: cues like larger wheels, brakes, and a spoiler. The front has a hexagonal pattern in the grille that's typical of RS models, while the air intakes are larger and the chin spoiler looks to sit lower than the standard car's. From the side we can see different skirts and fixed brake calipers. Around back two large exhaust pipes replace those of the standard car, which may be the biggest indication that the vehicle is in fact the RS3. Models like the S3 and S4 have quad exhaust tips, while RS models feature two large exits like the ones on the 2016 RS3 Sportback. For 2017, Audi has made some changes to the A3 line, but we haven't heard or seen anything official from Audi regarding the 2017 RS3, be it Sportback or sedan. With the A3 and S3, the interior benefits from the company's fantastic virtual cockpit digital gauge cluster. The company also added some driver assistance features and refreshed the car visually with new front and rear facias.

2023 Cadillac Lyriq vs Tesla Model Y, Audi E-Tron, Jaguar I-Pace | Specs compared

The 2023 Cadillac Lyriq is the latest electric luxury crossover to enter a quickly growing segment. It brings with it the company's trademark creased design language along with high-tech features and an impressive amount of range. The Cadillac also happens to have a price and specifications that put it square in the middle of a competitive group, so we had to line up the numbers to see how it compares. We've gathered up a selection of premium electric crossovers including the Tesla Model Y, Audi E-Tron and Jaguar I-Pace, all of which seem like the closest rivals for the Cadillac. We've assembled all the raw numbers in the chart below. We've also got some additional analysis below that. And now, onto the data. Power, range, efficiency Interestingly, the Cadillac is the least powerful of the bunch. This is a bit surprising considering that GM will have a 1,000-horsepower electric Hummer pickup coming out soon. But in the Lyriq, Cadillac only uses a single electric motor powering the rear wheels. While its 340 horsepower and 325 pound-feet of torque should be more than adequate, it falls short of all the dual-motor, all-wheel-drive competition. Because Tesla does not provide horsepower or torque numbers, we're not sure how much the base model makes. We assume it's close. The true power fiends will likely want the optionally available Model Y Performance, though. It also doesn't have publicized power numbers, but its 0-60 mph time of 3.5 seconds suggests its substantially more powerful than the other crossovers, here. Power is all well and good, but range is arguably more important for an electric car. The Tesla is on top, here. The base Long Range trim has an estimated range of 326 miles. The company doesn't specifically say how large the battery is for it or the Performance, which goes 303 miles. The Cadillac is close behind with a current estimate of more than 300 miles on its 100-kWh battery. Cadillac doesn't say whether that number is the gross amount or the usable amount. The Audi and Jaguar lag behind with less than 250 miles from their 95- and 90-kWh batteries, respectively. Audi is the only company that notes that the usable capacity is less than the total, which is a common strategy employed to extend the life of the battery and to maintain consistent ranges over time. 2020 Audi E-Tron View 13 Photos While not as broadly discussed as range, we also wanted to touch on efficiency.