Each car show has its own variety of personality in order to allow car manufactures to know what they should bring to the show. The Detroit Auto Show is the one where the newest production models show up to be the spring start, the SEMA show is made for tuners and aftermarket parts creators and the Tokyo Motor Shows seems to be one where the futuristic models can showcase themselves without worry of ridicule. This year it seemed as if many of the vehicles that have adorned the screen in Japanese comics had jumped off the pages and made their way to the showroom floor, which certainly made for an intriguing lineup.
Toyota joined the party with three futuristic concepts of their own to give us a great group of new vehicles that just might be what we see in the future. While embracing the new design structure and looking to make a serious splash the largest automaker in the world came in with the S-FR, the FCV Plus and the KIKAI, all which are concept cars that offer their own unique take on what the future of technology will be from Toyota which brought us the Prius not so long ago when others thought it couldn’t be done.
The S-FR is a smaller version of the FR-S that wears the Scion badge and is a lightweight, rear drive sports car that shows itself as a unique car. This car comes with a manual transmission and a lightweight construction. At ten inches shorter than the FR-S the S-FR is three inches narrower to fit through smaller spaces. This squeezed size does lead the roof to stand a bit taller to give this car a unique but certainly a sporty look that will play well with younger crowds.
The FCV Plus is a fuel cell model that has the hydrogen tank positioned between the rear axles to ensure there is plenty of room in the cabin for passengers. This car shows off with glass panels all around the car and will certainly make for a unique ride. So far the hydrogen cell cars are taking off even though there are limited areas they can be sold. Because this makes for a low emissions car that can also be fun to drive the FCV Plus should gain some serious attention if it ever makes it way to the production lines.
Third was the KIKAI which is a bit of a strange looking beast with its inner workings prominently on display . This car seats three people and has a small window to let you see the suspension at work while you drive from the center of the front seat which makes for the absolute perfect driving position. Not expected to make it to production in this form the KIKAI car is a concept that shows exactly what Toyota has in the works and might just cover with sheet metal and offer as a car that can be a lot of fun to drive on any road.
Along with these three concepts, which are all pretty interesting in their own rights, Toyota brought a Kirobo Mini which is a robot is programmed to communicate with its owner. This could be a lot of fun as a bonus to every Toyota purchase and would put a certain panic in the hearts of other automakers who won’t be giving away robots with every purchase. No doubt these three concepts and even the robot fit in perfectly at the Tokyo Motor Show to let us see some futuristic thinking that Toyota has going right now.
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