Ford teams up with Heinz for tomato car parts

Ford and Getty Images Forget carbonfibre, the new must-have material on your vehicle will soon be tomato fibre – or so Ford and food manufacturer Heinz are hoping. The American carmaker and the food giant have teamed up to "explore the use of tomato fibre to develop a sustainable bio-plastic material for vehicles," bringing environmentally friendly motoring to a whole new level. Ford and Heinz tomato car parts: how will they work?

Suzuki Vitara is back! New small SUV bound for Paris show 2014

By Tim Pollard First Official Pictures 27 August 2014 17:21 The Suzuki Vitara is coming of age - and this first official picture suggests the populist SUV is growing up to become a slicker, more mainstream 4x4. It’s certainly a far cry from the 1980s Vitara which became synonymous with a certain strata of society (see second picture in our gallery). Due to be shown at the 2014 Paris motor show, the new Suzuki Vitara is a mid-sized crossover aimed at on-road driving rather than fording your local stream en route to the gymkhana.

College Exhibition: Royal College of Art - GE Plasticon project

Postgraduate students at London's Royal College of Art recently presented the results of a multi-disciplinary design project in collaboration with GE Plastics. As part of the 'PLASTicon' project, 17 RCA first year MA students researched, designed and built models of concept vehicles aimed at the needs of different markets - from SUV owners to Gen-Y consumers - utilising the capabilities of plastics. Beginning in December, the students from the Vehicle Design course as well as from Textiles, were split into six teams tasked with conducting research into specific scenarios, including emerging generations and emerging markets to meet specific challenges of today and tomorrow.