TOKYO — One of the endearing aspects of the biennial Tokyo Motor Show is the window that opens up on the unique car market that’s exclusive to the islands of Japan. While cars like the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla are commonplace on Canadian roads, there are a certain number of Japanese automotive brands and vehicles that are exclusive to its domestic market. With that in mind, here are some of the weirder concept debuts from this year’s show:
Daihatsu D-Base
The least odd-looking of the Japanese automaker Daihatsu’s four concept car debuts at this year’s show is the D-Base, a four-door hatchback that previews the next-generation Mira microcar. Like all of Daihatsu’s kei class cars, the D-Base is smaller than the smallest subcompacts we get in Canada, such as the Nissan Micra. Inside, there are four individual bucket seats. Also par for Japan’s kei class is the front-wheel-drive D-Base’s tiny powerplant: a turbocharged 660cc three-cylinder engine mated to a CVT. With a Scion badge on its hood, the D-Base/Mira would make an excellent replacement for the unsellable Scion iQ city car, don’t you think?
Daihatsu Hinata
Said to be a precursor to a new generation of Japanese market-only Daihatsu kei class micro-vans, the Hinata is the same length and width as the Daihatsu D-Base hatchback but with a taller roof. In all of Daihatsu’s Tokyo concepts this year, it looks like the Japanese automaker’s door designers were working overtime to create something fresh. In the case of the light green exterior Hinata, that means “suicide” front- and rear-hinged side doors that open 180 degrees to allow easy access. Inside, the Hinata’s seating can be reconfigured in an inconceivable amount of ways (we lost track counting).
Daihatsu Nori Ori
The Nori Ori (which means “get on, get off” in Japanese) looks like another stereotypical Japanese box-on-wheels. But once its bright green doors glide open like a subway train’s, followed by a wooded veneer ramp that slides to the ground, the Nori Ori reveals its extremely low floor – all designed to allow easy ingress and egress for wheelchairs or strollers. As a local, campus-only shuttle for facilities like retirement communities or healthcare centres, vehicles like the Nori Ori could become important in the future, not only in Japan but in many other aging Western societies in North America and Europe.
Daihatsu Tempo
If there are two things automotive media are in constant search of at auto shows, it’s new concepts and free food. So it was no surprise to find a constant horde of media surrounding the new Daihatsu Tempo, a concept food truck designed to showcase the highly configurable interior of the automaker’s front-wheel drive kei platform – which could be just the ticket for budding Japanese food truck entrepreneurs (or starving auto writers). And, of course, as a show car, the Tempo needed some really cool doors, which it has: gull-wing apertures with LEDs on the passenger side.
Honda Wander Stand & Walker
Honda unveiled its new Wander Stand concept, a two-seat telephone-booth-on-wheels the automaker says “was designed to pursue the joy and freedom of mobility under the theme of ‘wandering around freely.’” The Wander Stand’s tall front windshield does double-duty protecting the concept’s occupants from the outside elements and as a head-up display (HUD) featuring large graphics for such functions as navigation and smartphone activities (like text messaging). Honda’s second mobility concept, the Wander Walker, was “designed to freely manoeuver among pedestrians.” Shown alongside Honda’s 15-year-old ASIMO (Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility) robot, the Wander Walker is more like a scooter of the future.
Nissan Teatro for Dayz
Amid its pitch-black show booth, the Nissan concept’s boxy exterior shape and wraparound tall window design is reminiscent of the last Nissan Cube, but with the addition of the Japanese automaker’s new signature “V motion” grille (that’s popping up on all of its new vehicles) and digital screens where you would expect crash-resistant bumpers. With no B-pillar, opening up the micro van’s four doors creates a large and welcoming aperture. Once inside, you’ll find the concept’s seats, doors and instrument dash covered in digital screens. Nissan dubs the concept interior design as “future canvas,’” eschewing with any normal buttons or knobs.
Suzuki Air Triser
What with the costly problems Germany’s Volkswagen Group is dealing with in regard to its ongoing Dieselgate scandal, we more than likely will never see a production version of the 2011 Volkswagen Bulli microbus concept. But perhaps Japan’s Suzuki, with its similar-looking Air Triser concept, will step in where VW won’t. At 4.2 metres in length, the Air Triser concept is a bit too big to fit in Japan’s kei class of cars. Power comes from a 1.4-litre four-cylinder gas engine helped by an electric motor, mated to five-speed automatic transmission that sends the power to all four wheels.
Suzuki Mighty Deck
Like the other major player in Japan’s domestic kei class of microcars, Daihatsu, Suzuki does not sells its vehicles in Canada. But that doesn’t mean kei car fans can’t pine for the new Mighty Deck, one of several new Suzuki concepts making their world debuts here in Tokyo. Inspired by Suzuki’s 1980s Mighty Boy commercial vehicle, the new Mighty Deck looks like it came right off the set of Baywatch. Fitting within the cramped kei class dimensions, the Mighty Deck manages to squeeze 2+2 seating within its 3.395-metre length.
Toyota Fuel Cell Vehicle Plus
Despite a hydrogen refueling infrastructure that’s essentially nonexistent, automakers continue to invest in fuel cell vehicles. Here in Tokyo, Toyota unveiled its Fuel Cell Vehicle Plus. Beyond its onboard hydrogen tank, Toyota says, theoretically, the FCV Plus could be used as an electrical generator, creating electricity from an external hydrogen source to create power either at home or while traveling. But keep in mind, even Toyota admits a vehicle like the FCV Plus is ahead of today’s hydrogen fueling infrastructure, recognizing that fuel cell vehicles like the concept “envisage a sustainable society in which hydrogen energy is in widespread use.”
Toyota Kikai
According to Toyota, today’s cars aren’t appealing because they “conceal their inner workings beneath smooth sheet metal.” Not so with its new Kikai concept – a vehicle that according to its maker, sheds its bodywork to “appreciate the complex beauty of the mechanical aspects of cars…in a digital age.” Looking like the result of a one-night stand between a 1930’s Ford hot rod and a Myers Manx dune buggy, the cycle-fendered and chromed-out Kikai resembles no former or future Toyota product that we know of. The concept exposes all the oily bits most automobiles hide with sheet metal – like the suspension arms, fuel tank, exhaust pipes and an engine – to the naked eye.
