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Student's winning idea of a plug-in hybrid electric two-wheeler “was no less than brilliant”

The Autocar-Courland Next Generation Award 2010 has crowned Loughborough University student, Hari Meyyappan, its winner.

His idea of a plug-in hybrid electric two-wheeler “was no less than brilliant,” according to Autocar’s own editor-in-chief, Steve Cropley.

Meyyappan had to fend off stiff competition from six fellow finalists, but emerged its worthy winner after a strong and confident pitch. "Hari’s presentation was very competent and he dealt with the questioning by ‘The Dragons’ extremely well," Cropley said.

“The judges and I will be watching his career progress with interest,” he added.

After collecting his award, Meyyappan said: “I am overwhelmed at winning the Next Generation Award and really proud of my achievement. It has been my dream since childhood to work in the automotive industry and hopefully I am now one step closer.”

His prize is five months of work experience with award partners Honda UK, the Marshall Motor Group, Peugeot, Mercedes-Benz Retail and Toyota GB, as well as a cash prize of £7500.

Entrants had to provide a plausible 1000-word paper in response to the following competition brief:

"As world demand for cars continues to climb steeply, the industry faces unprecedented challenges – from encroaching legislation, traffic congestion, declining oil reserves, indecision over which technological avenue to follow, economic uncertainty and rising public misunderstanding of its objectives."

"Write an article which (1) lays out and justifies your forecast of major car industry trends over the next 10 years, and (2) uses your specific study area to propose one or more original actions you believe would improve the situation."

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