Fri, Oct 26, 2001 page21

• Automakers from Japan tout whacky new designs

  SALES DRIVE Japanese designers have pulled out the stops on their creativity at the Tokyo Motor Show, introducing concept vehicles with multiple purposes

  • REUTERS
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  One egg-shaped vehicle doubles as a golf cart; another has twin removable motorcycles that serve as rear seat-backs; a space-age buggy called the "pod" wags its tail and takes your pulse.

  Vehicles like the "pod" and "Unibox" -- a car that looks like a giant, translucent lunchbox with six wheels -- will probably never hit the road, but some of the innovations they incorporate could end up in next-generation mainstream vehicles.

  "Concept cars shed light on the future," Nissan Motor Co Ltd President Carlos Ghosn said this week ahead of the start of the Tokyo Motor Show, where the cars will be on display.

  

  Journalists sit on the straw-mat flooring in the cargo space ofr Isuzu's ``Zen'' concept vehicle at the Tokyo Motor Show in Japan yesterday. Japanese designers have come up with a multitude of creations for this year's show.

  PHOTO: AFP

  "Talking about design and product without showing something material is very difficult. People get bored."

  Japanese automakers, letting their imaginations run wild, have unveiled for the show a crop of futuristic and outlandish cars that combine technological daring with shameless funkiness.

  Nissan, Japan's second-biggest carmaker, has eight concept vehicles on display, each costing up to $1.5 million to develop.

  The company's pride and joy is the "ideo", which Ghosn described as "a computer mouse that you control not with your fingertips but with a steering wheel as you browse the community around you -- a search engine powered by a real engine."

  The ideo's entire dashboard is a display panel, providing a stream of navigation and other information, including 3D panoramic views of the landscape as though taken from a helicopter hovering above.

  Say you pass a movie theatre. Information about what is playing and seat availability pops up on the screen.

  The name of the game is "telematics," or wireless communications and entertainment systems that offer drivers multimedia features ranging from hands-free cellphones to the ability to trade stocks to getting roadside assistance.

  The field is seen as a key source of future revenues for leading automakers.

  Japan's top carmaker, Toyota Motor Corp, stresses that point with its tail-wagging, mood-sharing "pod," developed with electronics giant Sony Corp.

  The four-seater car smiles, frowns and cries as it shares the driver experience, expressing its feelings through its LED facial features, waggable antenna tail and a number of display units.

  It senses your emotional state through pulse rates and sweat levels. Show stress, and it tries to calm you down with relaxing music and by blowing cool air.

  "The concept car explores the potential for communication between people and their vehicles," Toyota says in its promotional material.

  Whacky new ways of using interior space feature in many of the concept cars, as automakers seek to redefine what it means to buckle up as a passenger.

  The "Space Liner" by Japan's number four carmaker, Mitsubishi Motors Corp, offers a Zen-like "feel-good" interior, complete with swivelling front seats and a sofa in the back.

  Mitsubishi's design head, Olivier Boulay, calls the car an "absolute cruise machine ... like a private jet."

  The automaker is looking to create its own niche with an emphasis on "Japanese values" in its designs that appear to borrow from Japanese animation and have sought inspiration from the techno-edge of Sony products like the Aibo robot pet.

  Honda Motor Co Ltd, Japan's third-biggest carmaker, pushes the frontiers of space with its Unibox.

  The car is operated by a joystick, and boasts milliwave radar and CCD cameras designed to communicate with other vehicles to prevent crashes. It has two electric fold-up motorcycles, tucked away behind the see-through module panels.

  "You can use the space any way you please -- as a cafe, for example, or even as a listening room," the company says.

  If a bulldog could be reincarnated as an automobile, it would come back as another Honda concept car, a chunky metallic four-seater that seems to squat on its haunches.

  This gives passengers a high vantage point for cruising the streets.

  Like the Unibox, the "Bulldog" comes with two motorcycles. Folded and stowed, they double as the back of the car's rear passenger seats.

  The future of green technology also gets a showing, with many of the concept cars boasting environmentally friendly features that could be years or even decades down the road.

  The message from all the automakers: Green is the new cool.

  The funky, egg-shaped "Covie" by Suzuki Motor Corp, a specialist in 660cc minivehicles, makes use of a so-called household fuel cell system.

  The idea is to generate power by separating hydrogen from natural gas supplied to your home. What you don't use for driving the car can go into heating your household hot water.

  The Covie also comes equipped with slick telematics, adding to its Moon-buggy charm. The two-seater is about big enough for a driver and a set of golf clubs.

  Suzuki earlier this month expanded its alliance with US auto giant General Motors Corp to cover the development of fuel-cell vehicles. These cars will use an electrochemical process to produce electricity by mixing hydrogen and oxygen.

  Water is the only byproduct of the technology, but it's not likely such cars will be mass produced until at least 2010.
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