Concept Cars

Honda is determined to secure a slice of the growing Chinese motoring market with no less than three concept vehicles set to go into production in the near future. While details are scant, the company used Auto Shanghai 2013 to showcase its “Concept M” Multi-Purpose Vehicle (MPV), which is due to go on sale in China starting next year.  Read More

China's already huge automotive market is predicted to triple in size by the end of the decade and it's a scenario that has the world's car makers scrambling for a foothold. Nissan is among those, and its efforts to appeal to the youthful Chinese market were revealed in Shanghai this weekend in the shape of the Friend-ME concept car.  Read More

The fourth global concept car developed by the Shanghai GM and Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center (PATAC) joint ventures, the Buick Riviera emulates the form of moving water. The concept designed for the 2013 Shanghai Auto Show is powered by a plug-in hybrid system that can be recharged wirelessly.  Read More

Auto manufacturers are typically thought of in terms of tangible nuts and bolts, but the auto industry as a whole does a fair amount of conceptual thinking and prognosticating. Concept cars are the most visible part of this process, but automakers also host contests, conferences and conversations about the future of mobility and the world around us. Daimler recently gathered a group of post-graduate intellectuals and visionaries in thinking about the evolving roles that vehicles could play in the future.  Read More

In automobile design there are concept cars and there are high concept projects. And now, apparently, there are concepts that exist on a seemingly LED-infused plain. Renault, with the help of famed British designer Ross Lovegrove, took the latter route, and developed one of the most enlightened concepts to come along in years: the Tron-styled Twin’Z Concept.  Read More

Back in the year 2008, BMW introduced a rather radical SUV in the form of the swept-back X6. An instant hit with the media and autophiles alike the X6 was at the time a welcome departure from the atypical SUV box design. And so it would be that after five years the maker of Bavarian goods would bring us son of X6 – the X4 Concept.  Read More

For decades, the pickup truck has been the redneck-jock of automobiles – big, strong, dirty and not necessarily all that smart or refined. With the Atlas Concept, Ford envisions a future where the pickup truck adds a dose of technology and refinement. Consider the Atlas Concept that infuriating jock that managed to get straight As while playing a sport every season.  Read More

Despite the Segway becoming a household name, personal mobility vehicles have so far failed to make it to the world’s sidewalks in any great numbers. Still, some intriguing concepts over the years from the likes of Toyota, Honda and GM suggest that the wheels of the personal mobility revolution are still turning – if slowly. Hyundai is now getting into the act with its “E4U” personal mobility vehicle concept that was spied at the Seoul Motor Show last week by Nikkei Tech-On.  Read More

Subaru’s latest WRX concept shown at the New York Auto Show this past week was needless to say, light on specifics, but heavy on the visuals. Those visuals though, reveal a design that as a whole is significantly lower, sleeker and more confident in its brashness than its predecessors.  Read More