The Hindu Business Line : Funky concepts

Japanese companies are keen on re-establishing their engineering and technological prowess in all the parameters currently influencing product development in the automobile industry.

So, while the regular hybrid versions and concepts, and the sports performance cars were all there, all the buzz around the Japanese companies' vehicles centred around the almost comic small cars that the big three have on display.

Bordering on being wacky, all these extraordinary vehicles share a theme - being futuristic, funky and fun.

They are cute, cuddly, and even effeminate, looking somewhat like a Barbie-mobile or the real-life equivalent of a Manga/Anime cartoon car.

They almost certainly won't make it to the road in their current form and possibly can't even be called cars.

But these concepts sure do seem to be capable of being the basis for future developments in the fields of miniaturised electric hybrids, and of being potential test beds for new age materials for body panels and for furthering developments in the area of human- machine interface.

THE CUTIES

So, what were they like? The Honda Puyo is a boxy, toy-like miniature fuel-cell car that looks like a rounded capsule with wheels with a transparent top-half. Plastic abounds and the Puyo's body panels are made with soft silicone.

The panels are backlit with LEDs and change colour when someone touches them or does so supposedly based on the driver's moods. The multi-coloured dashboard display also features a joystick instead of the traditional steering wheel.

Toyota had a line-up of concepts, including the 1/X, the RiN, i-REAL and the Hi- CT. The Hi-CT is an edgy, urban vehicle, which has supposedly been inspired by the thinking and lifestyles of youth. It adopts plug-in hybrid technology, which allows it to charge from an external power source and gives it a greater driving range when running on its batterypowered motor; by placing the battery under the floor, it achieves a highly efficient cabin with a higher driver position.

But, typical of Toyota, the seemingly most low-profile concept at this Show too could be the one from which much of Toyota's future technologies could be spawned.

Remember, the Toyota Prius was a concept just ten years ago.

The 1/X (pronounced `one- Xth') is a concept vehicle that redefines from its very roots the idea of what it means to be environmentally considerate. The 1/X concept is the result of Toyota's attempt at developing a vehicle that weighs much lesser than conventional vehicles and by innovatively leveraging new lighter body materials like carbon fibre reinforced plastic, and a plug-in hybrid system, this concept can actually make the current hybrid benchmark - the Prius - look like a guzzler.

Nissan Motor, which has also been working on toy-like concept vehicles, had the second version of its Pivo concept. Nissan says that the Pivo 2, on display at this year's Tokyo Motor Show, is an advanced electric concept car.

For onlookers it almost looks like a cute oversized RC model. But, under its cute, rounded plastic panels, the Pivo 2 is an extremely hi-tech concept vehicle. The Pivo 2 is powered by advanced Compact Lithium-ion Batteries and employs `by-wire' technologies for braking and steering. Where the first version of the Pivo, with its fully rotating cabin design, made reversing obsolete, the Pivo 2 takes that easy mobility concept to a new level. Each of the four wheels are powered by Nissan's advanced electric inwheel, 3D-Motor and can turn through 90 degrees to allow Pivo 2 to drive sideways as well as forward.

Many of these concepts seem like just eye-candy and look impossibly cute to be driven on public roads. But who knows some of them just might make it for in-city use within the next few years.

Then maybe your car will also blush along with you.

S. Muralidhar