Currently reading: Autocar confidential: BMW, Honda, Audi, Mazda
Our reporters empty their notebooks to round up this week's gossip from across the automotive industry

This week's gossip from the automotive industry has news of BMW's car-sharing service, Honda's next-gen Honda Civic, Audi Sport and how Mazda's cars come to life.

Share your BMW

BMW has launched a flexible car-sharing service called ReachNow, which includes the ability for owners of apartment buildings to offer cars that residents can use on short-term hire. BMW and Mini owners in Seattle, where the scheme was launched, can also lend out their car when they don’t need to use it.

Read more: BMW 8 Series to return in 2018BMW M5 prototype review: super saloon goes four-wheel drive

Honda's next-gen Civic

Honda is already in the planning stages for the next-generation Civic, which will make its debut in 2021. The next Civic will play a key role in Honda’s plan for two-thirds of all its cars sold in Europe to feature some form of electrification. Honda’s Swindon plant director, Jason Smith, said the company is in the very early stages of exploring how a Civic with some form of electrification would be manufactured at the plant.

Read more: 2017 Honda Civic 1.0 i-VTEC Turbo SRHonda Civic Si coupé and saloon revealed for American market

Audi Sport division

Audi's quattro division was renamed Audi Sport after the original name became too complex to explain in new markets, CEO Rupert Stadler has said. “Quattro was heavily linked to four-wheel drive, and then we would go to new markets like Asia and explain we were a division of Audi called Quattro GmbH. People just got lost. Having our road and competition activities under one banner with a simple name communicates what we do.”

Read more: New Audi RS5 Coupé to cost from £62,900Audi Sport announces Dieter Gass as new motorsport boss

How Mazdas come to life

When Mazda designs a car, it starts by designing an object first. It boils down the design it wants to achieve to an abstract object, showing the design in its purest form before then applying it to the style of car it wants to create. Mazda then designs other products to the same theme, such as chairs and bicycles.

Read more: Updated Mazda CX-3 range gains new GT Sport modelMazda 3 MPS | Used Car Buying Guide

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Thanos 9 April 2019

Thanos

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John Fox 30 May 2017

If Honda want to sell cars in

If Honda want to sell cars in Europe, they'll need to move out of Swindon first, surely?