Archive for Concepts

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We’ve already seen the new Ford Escape announced a few months ago with full details on how the exterior and interior looks like, but Ford surprises us with this new concept Ford Escape at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show called the Ford Escape Adventure Concept.

The front gets a new three-bar grille with silver-accented air intakes and new projector headlamps. The lower fascia air intake is flanked by two silver triangular intakes. The antenna has also been relocated from the right hand fender at the front to the roof. Finally, it is painted with a new colour called Fire red, a combination of a red base with a mix of yellow pearl in the clear coat.

On the rear, the Escape Adventure Concept uses LED tail lights. The lamp cluster takes a new approach to LED lighting for the reverse indicators - instead of multiple white LEDs, just two LEDs are used and this emits light which is carried through a light tube to illuminate the entire tail lamp in a more uniform way.

Check out more live photos of the car at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show as well as product photos after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of TOKYO 2007 LIVE: Ford Escape Adventure Concept

This concept car is not from a car manufacturer but is instead from Kumho, a Korean tyre company. It is more of an idea concept instead of a working concept prototype, but the ideas that Kumho have for the car of the future are rather interesting. The concept car is called the Kumho Epoch.

For a start, the chassis of the Epoch is supposed to be grown from bamboo, which provides an immediate carbon offset. Its body panels are made of recycled tyre tread rubber. The car moves via in-wheel power, however it is far from what we’re used to with in-wheel propulsion like the Mitsubishi i-MIEV.

Instead, the Kumho Epoch uses Maglev units, or Magnetic Levitation units integrated into the four wheel hubs. This means zero friction, and maximum torque across the entire speed range.

The tyres used use EAP technology, which stands for Electro Active Polymer. The tread and shape of these tyres can be changed on a fly by passing an electric current through the rubber, thus enabling the tyre to have different characteristics in different situations. Grooved during wet, slicks during dry, and varying thickness to switch between performance and comfort is an idea.

The interior rubber uses Kumho’s scented rubber technology which uses heat-resistant oils to give the rubber scents such as lavender, neroli or jasmine. This technology has already been used for a production tyre - the Kumho ECSTA DX Aroma.

One more shot after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Kumho Epoch Concept

This looks very similiar to a Toyota Alphard with the latest in a series of Toyota grill designs slapped on, but it is actually the Toyota FT-MV concept that will make its appearance at the Tokyo Motor Show, opening for the press beginning tomorrow and for the general public later.

It is designed to fit 6 luxuriously, and the middle two seats have fully automatic ottomans, a kind of foot stool. It’s first class travel for those who need more space than what an E-segment luxury sedan can provide, similiar to the direction the Mercedes Benz R-Class took, which is also a 6-seater luxury MPV.

This info is from a pre-motorshow preview release so more details will be available tomorrow when the motorshow starts.

Click here to read the rest of Toyota FT-MV Concept

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Reader thechef spotted these cool Mazda 3 hatchbacks in Thailand sporting Coca Cola paintjobs and he wishes to share it with fellow readers, so here they are!

I think they look pretty neat, in fact it’s always interesting to see how companies do up their fleet if a custom paintjob is required.

More photos after the jump.

Related Posts:
Mazda 3 2.0 sedan and hatchback review

Click here to read the rest of Coke-themed Mazda 3 hatchback in Thailand

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UPDATE: Perodua has announced that a new Kembara will be launched in mid-2008. It is expected that the new Perodua Kembara replacement will be based on the Daihatsu Bego/Toyota Rush. Click here for more details.

UPDATE: New Kembara replacement Perodua SUV spotted on Malaysian roads!

Once again Theophilus Chin has whipped up his Photoshop and created this artist’s impression of how a future Perodua Kembara replacement model could look like. He used a short wheel base Toyota Rush/Daihatsu Be-Go and slapped on the combination of a Myvi and a Viva on it, to match Perodua’s current design language.

It makes sense for the Rush to be introduced here, but what we don’t know yet is whether it will be a short wheelbase or long wheelbase version, and what badge will be on the hood. Read my commentary on that in the first link in the related posts link below.

Related Posts:
Toyota Rush long wheelbase suitable for Malaysia?
New Daihatsu Terios announced in Indonesia
2006 Daihatsu Be-Go
Daihatsu Terios wins 4X4 of the Year 2007 Award

Unlike many concept cars which most of the time pay 99% of attention to the exterior and settle for some futuristic-shaped dash for the interior, the Nissan Intima Concept puts focus on an attractive, hospitable and relaxing interior according to Nissan’s “Modern Living Concept”. The interior has been designed for people who love refined and elegant interiors - yours truly included - whether traveling alone or with a partner.

“We designed the Intima as a car that expresses the interior attractiveness Nissan proposes in the Modern Living Concept. The inspiration came from imagining a situation where a person who has accumulated many life experiences and successes now wants to spend his or her own time, or time together as a couple, in an elegant environment,” says Nissan’s Product Chief Designer Kinichi Saito.

The instrument panel padding is made to appear to float in between the wood grain panels, and the center console incorporates a wave-like pattern. Arm rests and assist grips are chunky to give the passengers a feeling of comfort, something Nissan has already done with the interior of the Nissan Latio.

Ambient lighting provided by the instrument panel, center console, door trim and ceiling, and door assist grips (these feature a blue-green acrylic material and gives off a soft light). The interior is cooled by a four-zone climate control system which provides comfortable cooling for all passengers through the use of infrared sensors. It also uses a natural grape seed polyphenol filter that neutralizes pollen and other allergens.

The front passenger seat can swivel 80 degrees to the outside to welcome the passenger into the car or provide a “first class” send off to whatever destination he or she is going to. The interior is large but feels even larger thanks to a large glass roof which flows continuously from the windscreen onwards.

All in all, apparently they paid so much attention on the interior that they ran out of design hours and decided to nick the exterior from a Mercedes Benz CLS.

More photos after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of TOKYO PREVIEW: Nissan Intima Concept

This is the Honda CR-Z, which stands for Compact Renaissance Zero - Honda’s third attempt at a modern interpretation of the Honda CR-X. The first was the Honda REMIX Concept shown late last year, and between that and now there was the Honda Small Hybrid Sports Concept but not many consider the latter as an interpretation of the CR-X. The Small Hybrid Sports Concept did however give us an indication that any future CR-X-like model from Honda would come with a hybrid system.

“The CR-Z comes with a new hybrid system developed by Honda whose breakthroughs allowed designers to get around such restrictions to achieve its lean cutting-edge look,” says Tetsuji Morikawa, a Honda Motor Co engineer.

You’ve got the customary LED headlamps that is a must on all concept cars in this age, and the front sports an oversized grille, also something that has been popular with concept car designs. Looks like Audi got it right from day one.

It will be displayed at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show next week.

More photos after the jump.

Source

Click here to read the rest of TOKYO PREVIEW: Honda CR-Z Concept

BMW will be exhibiting a new concept vehicle at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show next week, but nothing else has been revealed about the new concept car other than the fact that it will be based on the BMW 1-Series platform.

A new small 3-door SUV called the BMW X1 perhaps? We will just have to wait for next week’s motorshow to see.

Source

Nothing much is known about the new Toyota Crown Hybrid Concept that will be displayed at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show other than a list of new features to be showcased - so we will have to wait until the motorshow rolls by to find out exactly what these new technologies are.

Anyway onto the features - the Toyota Crown Hybrid Concept will features Toyota Hybrid System II, an evolution of the current system being used in production hybrid vehicles - this uses a two-stage motor speed reduction device which helps achieve smoother acceleration, better fuel efficiency, low emissions and lower noise.

A new Finegraphic Meter TFT LCD display will be employed in the interior to provide information to the driver in an easy to see and understand manner - this could finally make its way into Toyota vehicles the same way Optitron started being used in Lexus cars first, so I think we should pay attention to this particular technology.

Vehicle stability will be enhanced with VDIM and active steering control, which I think has already made its debut on cars like the Toyota Mark X ZiO - using an optimal balance between drive power, steering and braking to help regain control of the vehicle in emergency cases. For passive safety, the car has 10 SRS airbags.

Like the Toyota Crowns before it, this new concept will likely be a front engine, rear wheel drive car. It is Toyota’s largest sedan and is about the same size as a Lexus LS.

An interesting fact to share: many Toyota sedans have been named after variations of the word Crown. There’s the Toyota Corona, where Corona is latin for crown, and there’s also the Corolla, which means small crown and usually refers to the small center “crown” of a flower. The Toyota Camry gets its name from kan-muri, meaning small crown.

More photos after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of TOKYO PREVIEW: Toyota Crown Hybrid Concept

This is not exactly 100% new - in fact it a concept with the same name and the same general direction was first shown in 2005 and production models of it have been spotted on the Nurburging. A concept will the same name will be displayed at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show next week in updated form so here is a short refresher course.

The Lexus LF-A Concept is a 2-seater sports car - or a super car if you like - that is supposed to be powered by a 5.0 liter V10 engine, likely the 2UR-GSE that made it’s debut in the Lexus IS-F. However, the one to go into the production LF-A might be one in a totally different state of tune considering the 9,000rpm redline of the LF-A Concept as seen in the dash photos after the jump, compared to the IS-F’s 7,000rpm redline.

The car’s body is made of light but sturdy carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP), so this is not merely a two-door version of the IS-F. Comparing the photos of the 2005 LF-A concept and the one that will be displayed at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show, it appears that Lexus has revised the LF-A Concept, with the interior looking noticeably different.

Check out photos of the updated LF-A Concept after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Lexus LF-A Concept 2-seater sports car