Who's Where: Martin Smith to retire, succeeded by Joel Piaskowski as Ford Europe head of design

Martin Smith, head of Ford of Europe design for the last 10 years, will retire at the end of this year, before which he will work on a project to study the future direction of the company's global design direction. He will be replaced by current head of strategic concepts group, Joel Piaskowski on 1 July. Smith (64) first joined Ford back in 2004, leaving General Motors as director of design for Opel/Vauxhall.

Hyundai i-Blue concept (2007): first official pictures

By Guy Bird First Official Pictures 12 September 2007 06:48 Fuel cells, coupes and crossover wagons… The world debut of the i-Blue fuel cell concept headed up a trio of key Hyundai products at the Frankfurt show stand. ‘Spare me another fuel cell concept’ I can almost hear you thinking, but don’t switch off. This one is no theoretical eco powerplant for a fantasy concept but a serious design showcase tailor-made for Hyundai’s very real third-generation fuel cell technology (the previous two versions were in special versions of the bigger Santa Fe and Tucson).  It’s Hyundai’s first ever model designed from the ground-up to incorporate fuel cell technology.

Top Gear India Christmas – the trailer

Top Gear Christmas Special in India - airs 28th December It’s almost Christmas, so there’s a Top Gear Special in the offing. This time to India, and the BBC have released a video trailer. Back in October we reported that the Top Gear team had decamped to the Subcontinent to film a Christmas special for the Beeb.