VIDEO: New heights of luxury don’t just come in a van anymore — it’s the actual interior

IN INDIA, where private drivers are already a middle class staple, one man has created an entirely new category of executive wheels: The mobile office.

Indeed, the handiwork of Dilip Chhabria, an erstwhile GM engineer, is discreetly visible across India. His firm, DC design, co-opts battered Toyota Highlanders and retrofits the interiors with amenities like wifi, touchscreen TVs, sound- proofing, and airline pod-style seats expressly to answer one of the city’s biggest problems — traffic. Conveniently transformed, these SUVs now make short order of ever-longer commutes, turning them into just another day at the (mobile) office.

Nowhere is more fertile a base for DC’s designs than Mumbai: private vehicle numbers there have risen 57% in less than a decade, and by one estimate, 200 new cars join the traffic jam every day. It’s typical of many of the nascent megatropolises in emerging markets, from Bangkok to Brazil, Moscow to Mexico City, where the roadways have begun to buckle in the wake of the economic boom. Unfortunately, and increasingly, the situation isn’t much different stateside — just ask California businessman Mark Hyman.