Nissan’s Mixim Concept Car in detail

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September 13, 2007 According to Nissan research, teenagers have fallen out of love with the car – they see it as an oily, noisy throwback to the last century. Rather than drive across town to meet friends, they live in a virtual world where the internet is their vehicle of choice. Nissan, however, believes the Mixim show concept will ‘refresh’ their opinions. The futuristic electric coupe concept has a central driving position, a cloverleaf ‘three plus one’ seating layout, scissor doors, an F1-style wheel and controls, lightweight construction and plenty of power … and it’s all electric

“If the motor industry is going to survive beyond the next few years, we are going to have to work hard to attract future generations of drivers – people who currently find it difficult to love the car. Mixim is one way to do that. It combines a sociable three plus one interior with controls and visual projections that are familiar to the computer generation. And it uses environmentally-friendly battery power,” says Shiro Nakamura, Senior Vice President and Head of Design, Nissan Motor Company

At Nissan’s Exploratory and Advance Planning Department, the dateline is currently 2020. The Tokyo-based team is looking not just at the car of 12 to 15 years hence, but also at how it will fit into our lives.

And the future’s not looking bright. The trouble is that the next generation of drivers – today’s young teens – are giving the car the cold shoulder according to Nissan’s research. According to the research, teenage lives are nowadays ruled by the computer which taken centre stage by providing everything they need: education, shopping, entertainment and global communication.

For them, the car has become an anachronism, a relic from the days when their parents drove everywhere, oblivious to how they were exhausting the natural resources needed to keep it going. And that’s before the young start on the damage its emissions used to do to the environment.

Besides, why would they want to drive somewhere to socialise, when they can have an instant video conversation with as many friends as they can find on line?

In response to this trend, Nissan’s Exploratory team has foreseen this shift in attitude towards the car and has created Mixim to halt the decline.

Mixim has been designed to change young people’s feelings towards the car… and towards each other: with three full and one occasional seat, a Mixim driver will have the opportunity to interact with friends in person rather than over the internet!

The brainchild of François Bancon, general manager of Nissan’s Exploratory and Advance Planning Department, Mixim has all the right ingredients to excite the next generation of drivers.

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