Tokyo gets serious: at the 37th Tokyo Motor Show, Japanese automakers rejected wacky for workable and gave a glimpse of a stylish, alternative-powered future

Automotive Design & Production,  Dec, 2003  by Kermit Whitfield

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

The Tokyo Motor Show is not the antic sideshow of wacky and improbable concept vehicles it once was. No, the ambitions of the Japanese automakers this year focused on ideas that could soon make their way into production, rather than on the exuberant silliness of past shows. Even the few notably strange vehicles like the Toyota PM seem like plausible answers to future transportation needs. Fuel cell vehicles were everywhere, some exotic and others covered with unobtrusive shells that could have just rolled off a production line. The attitude seemed to be less that fuel cell vehicles are some hot new thing to crow about than that they have become the price of admission, and that the Japanese have moved on to experimenting with the many utilitarian shapes they can take. And that should be a worrying thing for Japan's global competitors.

TOYOTA PM. The darling of the show was the Toyota PM, which is a little disturbing since it looks like the vehicle of choice for a Pod People invasion. PM stands for "personal mobility" and Toyota calls it a "wearable" vehicle to emphasize unambiguously that it only fits a single occupant. The idea behind the PM is that instead of piling a group of people into one vehicle, each person takes his own and the group "platoons" to destinations. To keep the experience from being too isolating, the PM is equipped with a sophisticated communication system that senses when other PMs are nearby and can keep in constant contact with them, creating, in effect, a rolling chat room. (The diffused lighting that shines through the translucent carapace of each PM even changes colors when communication is established to indicate "resonance mode.")

The rear wheel and suspension assembly slides along a track in the back of the occupant pod allowing the PM to attain three distinct positions: upright for entry and exit; the slightly more lowered "city mode" and a high-speed mode that lowers the pod closer to the ground for the most aerodynamic profile. This makes for an unusual spec sheet with wheelbase ranging from 1,100 to 2,000 mm and possible height variances from 1,215 to 1,855 mm.

HONDA ODYSSEY AND KIWAMI. Concept cars typically have supple lines that are the result of designers indulging themselves without regard to the harsh realities of manufacturability. Actual production vehicles inevitably embody many compromises which dull the original intent of the stylist. But at the Honda stand the roles were reversed. The production Japan market Odyssey, which premiered at the show, caused a stir with its long, low, aggressive take on a monospace people-hauler. with a steeply sloped hood and fenders that end abruptly at the line that demarks the chrome-laden grill and sporty thin headlights, the Odyssey seems to defy definition as a minivan. Of course, its low 1,550-mm height and lack of sliding doors may keep it from being a true minivan anyway (whatever that is).

It is hard to imagine a concept with less sex appeal than the Honda Kiwami. Usually simplicity of line is a virtue, but this fuel cell concept carries lack of adornment to a logical but stultifying extreme. The styling team took traditional Japanese architecture and garden design as their inspiration, even to the point of fashioning a center console that runs the length of the interior and is supposed to induce the calm of a Japanese garden. But if a vehicle can accurately convey the rightfully well-regarded traditional Japanese aesthetic, this is not it.

NISSAN EFFIS. Nissan came up with a fresh take on the fuel cell vehicle by thinking small. The Effis is a "3.5 seater" concept that measures a mere 3000 mm in length and looks like a SMART car circa 2020. The design theme furoshiki, the Japanese wrapping cloth that changes shape to conform to its contents, stresses multifunction adaptability. The most clever example of this is the crescent-shaped front dash which can be pushed in for more passenger space or pulled out to twice its normal size to form a table with cup holders when the driver is solo. Nissan wanted to keep the Effis as light as possible, so in addition to making extensive use of aluminum and plastic, it went as far as to eliminate weight of paint and upholstery by electrolitically coloring the aluminum exterior panels and injection molding the front seats with a resin that requires no covering.

The Effis is driven by Nissan's "Super Motor" which uses an innovative design to reduce size and weight to one-third of the previous electric motor, unlike a conventional motor that uses a rotor with permanent magnets to rotate around an electromagnetic stator to generate power through a single shaft, the Super Motor positions rotors on both the inside and outside of the stator and delivers power through two shafts. Because it can vary power output to each shaft independently, one Super Motor can replace two conventional units without losing the separate wheel control needed for advanced traction and stability systems.