Stuart Birch in Tokyo
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From The Times
October 26, 2007
Manufacturers show a green pair of wheels with the weird and wonderful
Honda has developed a car that is soft enough to stroke. Revealed at the Tokyo Motor Show this week, the Puyo concept has a silky-touch, luminescent body made of silicone and designed to have the feel “of an adorable pet”. Push against it and your finger will sink into its “flesh”.
“Driving the Puyo through town raises everyone’s spirits,” Honda says. Sounds daft? Absolutely, but Tokyo is the international motor show that combines advanced technology with zany ideas and humour. It does have its serious side, though, mainly demonstrated by an outbreak of hybriditis.
The serious side of Honda came with confirmation that it will have an “affordable”, global hybrid on sale in late 2009. Likely to sell at about £14,000, it will be a full four-seater with ultra-low fuel consumption and emissions, but strong performance. And the seriousness continued with Honda’s CR-Z (Compact Renaissance -Zero) concept coupé hybrid that will lead to a replacement for the delightful, deft, 1980s CR-X coupé.
The sleek CR-Z will prove that it is possible to have high performance and low emissions. On sale in 2009, it could be priced at about £18,000.
Honda has already developed a racing version of its present hybrid Civic, with 150bhp petrol engine and 30bhp electric motor. I tried it on the Motegi test track in Japan. It was fiendishly noisy, precise and enormous fun – and unlikely to be stocked by your local dealer. But what you will be able to buy next year is a new, but not radically different, version of the successful Jazz. And Honda will also reveal a new Accord, with a choice of some excellent diesel engines.
Audi’s new model birthrate shows no sign of slackening and it revealed the hybrid metroproject quattro in Tokyo. The concept heralds the Audi 1, expected in production in a couple of years. Mildly wedge-shaped, with a huge radiator grille, it is a four-seat coupé. The engine is a small, turbo-charged, 1.4litre petrol, but it produces 150bhp and a 41bhp electric motor drives the rear wheels.
Top speed is 125mph and 0-62mph takes only 7.8sec – all for CO2 emissions of 112 g/km. It has a removable Man Machine Interface system that allows the driver to switch on the car’s heating from home. Audi’s sister company, Volkswagen, took a larger, four-door version of its up! concept to Tokyo. The space up! has twin, van-like doors instead of a tailgate.
Nissan does not understate its new all-wheel drive GT-R, which it revealed at the show and described as a “multiperformance supercar” and “top class” on the track, but with “great on-road manners”. The engine is a 3.8litre, 475bhp, twin-turbo V6 and the car has been designed to cruise at 186mph.
Nissan also showed its chunky, “youth-orientated” Round Box four-seater for “feel thrilled” togetherness and the PIVO 2, with a cabin that can rotate through 360 degrees and a dashboard-mounted “Robotic Agent” said to engender “feelings of affection and trust” to cheer you up. It says a bright and breezy “Hello” as you enter the car. A robot destruction device might be a useful option.
If Subaru’s new 1.5 and 2.0litre Imprezas have hardly proved soul-stirring, the near-300bhp, 2.5litre WRX STI version unveiled at Tokyo should. A World Rally Championship car look-alike, it has a tough persona with four exhaust pipes to delight Impreza Turbo fans.
Toyota unveiled eight concept vehicles at the show, including the RiN, which monitors oxygen levels and checks the driver’s psychological state. Toyota says that it is a serious project. The four-seat FT-HS (Future Toyota Hybrid Sports) is another “perform-ance with environmental responsibility” concept. It has a 3.5litre, V6 engine.
Toyota has done exceptionally well with its Prius hybrid, but it is working on the technology behind a new, ultra-lightweight, carbon fibre-bodied, hybrid concept called 1/X. The weight is a third that of Prius, but it has the same interior space and fuel efficiency is doubled. The engine is a tiny 500cc unit and the electric motor battery is plug-in.
One of the strangest vehicles was the ultra low-speed Suzuki PIXY, which can “dock” into a special car – a “minicar-based mobility unit” that turns into a car when one or two PIXYs are mated with it – or even a boat. Undocked, it can be used on footpaths or in large buildings such as motor show halls. I preferred to walk.
Try http://www.solarelectricalvehicles.com/. They manufacture solar roof panels for Toyota Prius and Highlander Hybrid. Good for 215W, tops...
Ed Leaver, Denver, USA/Colorado
Solar cells would work (10-20% effcient) but wind turbines on the move would just create more drag, probably making the motor work harder using more power than the turbines could recoup. Still need a better way to store the energy you collect though.
ed, ottawa, Canada
Can anyone comment on these interesting ideas for greener motors?. 1. Lightweight hybrid car with solar-cell body and roof panelling for extra charge while in use or parked. 2. Inbuilt wind-turbines to generate extra current while travelling or parked. This may not be intercontinental ballistic missile science and I may not be a radical genius, though we are all, no doubt, very much anticipatingthe day when a radical new clean-energy pwer unit is practical.
Dirty Dick, Taunton, UK