Tuesday 29 November, 2011. The Green Piece Column.
Japan’s year of trials and troubles ends with a show of its industrial might in the Tokyo Motor Show and will show just how this determined nation has picked up the pieces following the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami which rocked it back in March.
As Tokyo prepares to open its 42nd international show to the press tomorrow (November 30, 2011), the country’s native car brands will be on force to show their role in the country’s recovery and how quickly they regained normal production levels.
Of course, the show won’t just serve as a chance for Japan to show how its automotive sector stands tall despite being hit by a global economic recession and its own natural disasters, the show will be an important chance for the country’s car industry to demonstrate its ideas for the future.
As a densely-populated, small country (Japan has the tenth largest population in the world), Japan is the perfect place for all the car giants to showcase how they envisage we will cope with increasingly urbanised world. Of course that means a whole load of high-tech and slightly zany-looking, compact solutions which can move around urban environments with the least amount of environmental and physical impact.
Honda
Cue Honda; one of Japan’s own has already detailed that it is to reveal no less than seven concepts; all focused on either offering a compact transport solution, a low emission solution or both (see story). Five of them will be electric and a six is a hybrid. The final seventh concept is a mobility concept, called Townwalker, which can be easily loaded into a car. Of the five EV concepts, three will be motorcycle type vehicles. The most interesting will be the stylish looking Small Sports EV concept (pictured) and the AC-X plug-in hybrid.
With all fourteen of Japan’s car makers exhibiting and 20 foreign brands too, the futuristic concepts don’t stop there either. Here’s what else, Japan’s finest will offer:
Nissan
Nissan knows that one of the problems with urban driving is trying to find somewhere to park in a busy city centre. Many of us will have experienced wasting significant time and fuel, driving around a city centre looking for a suitable parking space, negotiating the nightmare of one way streets in the process and needlessly adding to traffic jams. As a result, the native brand is to show its ‘self-parking’ car in its latest incarnation of the Pivo concept city car.
Its Automated Valet Parking (AVP) technology, is real-world stuff, using sensors and cameras to negotiate itself into a parking space, the car can be abandoned by the driver and left to find a nearby space using sat-nav information and can even be recalled by the driver when the car is needed again. Although we’ll find out more at the show itself about the exact technical details, the Pivo electric car can apparently charge itself too, while its owner is away (see story).
Toyota
Next up is the biggest of the lot; Toyota. Its central attraction will be the new FCV-R hydrogen fuel cell concept vehicle planned for launch in 2015.
Looking a lot like the Prius and sharing similar dimensions, the FCV-R is a four passenger saloon with a next generation fuel cell system that includes a 70MPa high pressure hydrogen tank with a cruising distance of 435 miles. A couple of electric concepts complete Toyota’s display; FT-EV II and Fun-Vii and an ‘affordable’ compact hybrid called Aqua (see story).
Suzuki
Fresh from its fallout with Volkswagen, Suzuki’s display will consist of a reappearance of the Swift EV hybrid and an interesting concept called rather quaintly ‘Regina’, designed to be a very efficient, very lightweight petrol supermini. Suzuki reckon it will get around 90mpg. A two-seat micro EV concept, the like of which just about every respectable car maker has these days, will also appear under the name of ‘Q-Concept’ (see story).
Mitsubishi
Mitsubishi will be one of the biggest show-offs in Tokyo with no less than fifteen vehicles on display, including two world premieres; a compact fuel efficient model called Mirage and the Concept PX-MiEV II plug-in hybrid.
Sharing the MiEV name with Mitsubishi’s first full production electric car, the car will use the same electric vehicle technology as found in the city car model, with this midsize model combining it with a 2.0 MIVEC engine to achieve a projected 141mpg and a range of 497miles.
There will also be the Mitsubishi Mirage, with a focus on compactness and affordability. It will offer top of its class fuel efficiency in the Japanese market of 70.6mpg; and is intended to fit the needs of emerging markets as an affordable entry-level model. It will first go on sale in Thailand in March, 2012 (see story).
Mazda
Mazda will make the global premiere of its new Takeri mid-size saloon concept car and will also show its forthcoming CX-5 crossover model; both of which make use of its clean Skyactiv technology.
The new Takeri will use the Skyactiv-D diesel engine, with Mazda i-stop, new lightweight structure, aerodynamic and chassis technologies and regenerative braking to allow the car to achieve great fuel economy. Meanwhile the CX-5, set to go on sale in the UK from next year, will use the firm’s Skyactiv-G petrol engine as well as the diesel equivalent, and is expected to offer class-leading economy of as much as 62.8mpg (see story).
Smart Mobility
There will also be a Smart Mobility City 2011 project at the show, consisting of exhibition, test drives and conference focused on the theme of "next-generation automobiles and the social systems with which they interact" and will explore the next stage in the automotive evolution; when cars aren’t just cleaner but transport systems are better integrated and more in tune with driver needs and wants. The official theme is entitled; ‘The Future for Humans, Automobiles and Cities brought about by Cutting-Edge Technologies in Information, Environment and Energy’. Interesting stuff.
The Tokyo Motor Show opens to the press on November 30 and December 1, before opening to the public on December 3 and running until December 11, 2011. We’ll bring you all the news as it breaks.
Faye Sunderland.
