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Tata Nano (2008): first official pictures

By John Sootheran First Official Pictures 10 January 2008 09:33 Shove over a bit Henry Ford, Ferry Porsche and Alec Issigonis, because as of this morning there's a new entrant for the People's Car Hall of Fame. The first day of the Indian Auto Expo 2008 in Delhi, saw Ratan N Tata (yes, the fella who's leading the bid for Jaguar and Land Rover) reveal his much vaunted 'one lakh' car (that's 100,000 rupees or a measly £1300). Despite being the Chairman and CEO of one of the world's biggest corporations, Ratan Tata admits to being a nervous presenter, so much so, that the initial information was presented by his hologram! When he did appear, it was behind the wheel of one of three 'one lakh' cars being driven onto the stage. The 3000-strong audience of press and VIPs went beserk amid scenes of euphoria last witnessed at the Clinton comeback in New Hampshire.

Volvo S60 L plug-in petrol hybrid heading for Beijing Motor Show

The Volvo S60L Plug-in (pictured) heading for Beijing The Volvo V60 Plug-in is already doing good business for Volvo – despite a price tag of £50k – but the V60 plug-in is a diesel hybrid which doesn’t suit all markets. So Volvo are ploughing ahead with a petrol engine based plug-in hybrid with the debut at the Beijing Motor Show next week of the Volvo S60 L Plug-in, a petrol hybrid version of the long wheelbase S60. At first glance the S60 Plug-in looks just like its regular ICE sibling, but under the skin sits a 2.0 litre Drive-E petrol engine with 238bhp and 258lb/ft of torque – which drives the front wheels – and a 68bhp electric motor with 147lb/ft of torque that can drive the rear wheels, which can be recharged in 4.5 hours.

Michelin Challenge Design competition celebrates 10 years

Michelin has released a short video documenting the last ten years of the Challenge Design competition. With excepts from jury members Freeman Thomas, Director of Advanced Design at Ford; Victor Nacif, VP of Design at Nissan Design Europe; Geza Loczi, Director of Design at Volvo Monitoring Concept Center; Dave Marek, Advanced Design Director for Honda North America; Steward Reed, Chair of Transportation Design at ACCD; Frank Saucedo, Design Director of GM's Advanced Design Studio in California and Chris Chapman of BMW Designworks USA, the video outlines some of the 2700 entries Michelin has received since the competition's inception in 2002. That year, the MCD display at the NAIAS in Detroit featured cars from European design houses.