India Vehicle Design Summit 2014 announced for April

The India Vehicle Design Summit 2014 will be the first in its history to focus exclusively on the ‘design and styling' of commercial and passenger vehicles. Taking place at The Corinthians Resort and Club in Pune from 24-25 April, the summit will feature speakers from brands including Jaguar, Ferrari and McLaren and industry experts from companies such as Volvo, GM and Tata as well as institutions such as the National Institute of Design in India and London's Royal College of Arts. Confirmed speakers include Volvo China's chief designer Gustavo Guerra, renowned designer Peter Stevens and Anil Saiini, director of design at GM India.

Honda Fits from 2007, 2008 recalled for headlight problem

Honda is recalling more than 143,000 Fit cars from the 2007-08 model years in the United States for defective headlights. Potential low-beam headlight failure stems from a wiring defect that could cause connectors to overheat and fail. Honda will start notifying U.S.

BMW i3 EV revealed. It’s clever, but it’s not exactly pretty

The BMW i3 electric city car (pictured) has been officially revealed The BMW i3 – the first of BMW’s production ‘i’ electric cars – has finally been revealed at events in London, New York and Beijing as BMW plots its course to bring a premium electric city car to the world. Looking much like the original Mega City Concept, the i3 debuts a number of innovations from BMW – which are very clever – but it also debuts perhaps the worst looking BMW we’ve ever seen, with its incongruous lines, bulging bonnet, odd shapes on the flanks and slab-backed rear view. But what underpins the i3 is clever indeed, with a lightweight inner body made from carbon fibre and carbon fibre reinforced body panels providing the skin, all conspiring to make the i3 light – 1195kg, despite 25 per cent or so of that being batteries – and very rigid.