Indian automaker Mahindra & Mahindra is talking to officials in Ohio about the possibility of building a light truck plant there.

The company has said it wants to start selling a small, fuel-efficient diesel-hybrid pickup truck in the U.S. and the Columbus Dispatch newspaper reported today that Ohio state development department officials have confirmed that they've been talking to Mahindra.

The state officials would not confirm that the discussions involved construction of a truck factory.

But Global Vehicles USA, an Alpharetta, Georgia, company that has a U.S. distribution deal with Mahindra, told the newspaper that the company does want to assemble trucks in Ohio from component kits shipped from India.

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Our correspondent tries hydrogen rickshaw on for size.

By Nick Kurczewski, Contributor

NEW DELHI -- Squeezing into the non-existent passenger space of a vehicle built for one turned out to be the easy part.

The driver, seated in the center, and directly behind what looked to be a set of motorcycle handlebars, attempted to fire up the hydrogen-burning engine, again and again. 

A sputter, a grumble from the exhaust, one or two feet of forward motion, and then … nothing.  The bright blue three-wheeler’s one-cylinder two-stroke motor died, and the trike came to an abrupt stop.

India’s hydrogen-powered future faces similar false starts and the occasional stumble.

But the fact that the world’s 3rd largest economy (in purchasing power) has a roadmap for hydrogen in the first place – not to mention a Ministry of New and Renewable Energy – might come as something of a surprise to those who expect the country’s emissions regulations to be woefully outdated.

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