People's car

Seventy years after the first concept car (General Motors' 1938 Buick Y-Job) Italy-based Pininfarina has unveiled the 'synthesis' of its ideals at the International Motor Show in Geneva.

Under the conceptual eye of Pininfarina's design director Lowie Vermeersch, the Sintesi fuel-cell-powered sports car is said to showcase a new approach to car design.

The designers claim to have built a vehicle around its passengers, rather than as a shape to cover the mechanical components, so the Sintesi's four doors open upwards to reveal a spacious, four-seater interior cabin.

A striking inside feature is the illuminated, semi-transparent dashboard (below) that looks like an insect egg sac, but actually has a more useful role in displaying information to the driver, such as hazard alerts, through a display of lights and colours. Pininfarina said all the information now provided by road infrastructure, such as traffic lights and road signals, will be displayed inside the vehicle.