Technology Reviews

Pininfarina will become an OEM or manufacturer in the near future when it launches its first product in a few months time. The Italian car design house and coachbuilder - known most famously for its decades-long association with Ferrari. The company was founded in 1930 and is well known for designing some of the iconic Ferrari road models in particular. And now it is making a play for turning from a designer or body specialist to being the builder of cars. The company will launch its range of cars - likely to be exclusively all-electric only models. These will be in the premium segments only, and will essentially be a Tesla rival. And the first car is already under development. India's Mahindra Group acquired Pininfarina in 2015, and its Chairman and Managing Director shared this with me - "We are hoping to build a really high-end, crowd-pleasing Pininfarina electric - that's in the works."

The vehicle uses a hydrogen fuel cell to power the electric motor. Hydrogen fuel cells are easier and quicker to charge than batteries and have a longer range.

Hyundai has filed a patent to develop its next generation cars with a front chassis structure that is made from plastic. When we say plastic though, we do not mean the kind of plastic that is used to make your bathroom bucket or a Tupperware container but plastic that is reinforced by carbon fibre. The material, CFRP or Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic will replace steel or aluminium that is usually used to make these structural components, as it is considerably lighter than metal while still giving the same or more structural rigidity. The components could be bonded together using industrial strength glues and plastic welding.

Completing five years in the Indian market, Bharat Benz has launched the country's first ever Euro V compliant trucks in the medium-duty segment targeted at urban transport with the model intended to offer cleaner emissions over the current BS-IV range.

The company boasts of groundbreaking technology and innovations that makes the new Leaf even better than its predecessor. We take a look at the autonomous features that makes the new Nissan Leaf a force to reckon with in the electric vehicle segment.

With Suzuki setting up its own battery manufacturing joint venture in Gujarat, Mahindra says it will be open to the Japanese company being its supplier for batteries in the future.

The Renault Nissan Mitsubishi Alliance have outlined their plans for electric cars in the near future. These new cars will include a new generation of electric batteries and motors which will also have fast charging capabilities and a range of over 600 kilometres. the alliance plans to launch 12 new electric cars by 2022 with shared platforms and many more models with plug in hybrid technology.

Bentley has said that it will be working on an electric sportscar, based on the Bentley EXP 12 Speed e Concept showcased at the 2017 Geneva Motor Show a few months ago.