Beyond the Motor: Trending Designs From Tokyo Motor Show 2017
The biennial Tokyo Motor Show has wrapped up its 2017 event, themed "Beyond the Motor." Running over 10 days, the show features some legendary classics, new releases and of course everyone's favorite concept cars.
Over 770,000 people walked through the doors to view the latest and future offerings from domestic manufacturers, as well as 13 foreign manufacturers. With 380 vehicles on display, there was something for everyone, even if you are not a fan of cars. The variety of vehicles included cars, trucks, busses, motorcycles and personal transport devices. There was even a mobile refrigerator from Honda on display.
Tokyo Motor Show Highlights
Compared to the previous Tokyo Motor Show in 2015, this year's did not have quite the same wow factor—brought by the debuts of the Mazda RX Vision or the Nissan 2020 Vision Gran Turismo. But, Mazda still made waves with this year's Mazda Vision Coupe and Kai Concept.
Toyota brought out their big guns for both their Toyota and Lexus brands. The Lexus LS Concept was equally as stunning as the Mazda Vision Coupe. The RC F and LC 500 were also beautiful—hopefully more people will start to use them as a customizing platform.
The Toyota Concept-i family of cars and personal mobility devices gave a glimpse to how Toyota feels AI will influence the way we drive in the future. With a personal assistant AI, some may love their cars even more than real people if Toyota's vision comes to light. The combination of composites and lighting made the cars feel more like mobile living spaces than cars.
Probably the biggest surprise was Honda's vision of the future with NeuV, Urban EV Concept and Sports EV Concept. With a mix of fun design and LED messaging, these are the cars Honda thinks everyone will be driving. The Urban EV features design cues similar to that of the Honda Civic hatchback, while the Sports EV definitely has a feel of the classic Honda S600.
Other models that caught our attention were Volkswagen's I.D. Buzz, Nissan's IMx, and the Subaru VIZIV Performance Concept. While branded as a cross-over, the VIZIV seems like it would be a natural design evolution for all the Subaru models. Who'd like to see a VIZIV competing in WRC in a few years time?
