Concept Cars

Last week Audi released sketches of a new lightweight all-electric Urban concept it intends to show at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Now, before we've seen the Sportback version in the flesh, it has decided to add an open-air Spyder version of the 1+1-seat technical study. Both cars feature a continuous, pillarless window area and doors that open upwards for ingress/egress in tight urban surroundings. Even more intriguing is the similarity between the Le-Mans-winning R18 and the Urban concept - see images inside. Read More

Until now, Audi’s e-tron line of concept vehicles, including the e-tron Frankfurt, e-tron Detroit, and e-tron Spyder, have featured highly desirable, albeit conventional designs reflecting Audi’s intention to put the vehicles into production over the next few years. With the latest e-tron branded concept vehicle intended purely as a technical study and not being based on any previous model the Audi designers have been freed up to make a departure from previous designs with the new Audi urban concept. Read More

BMW has fully committed itself to the battery-electric driving revolution by setting up a whole new sub-brand - BMW i - devoted to emission-free motoring. Now, the i group has released details of two concept cars that look set to become production models within a few years. The i3 concept is a fully-electric city car with an everyday driving range of around 160 km (100 miles) per charge, and the i8 is a sporty 4-seater plug-in hybrid that combines electric and petrol drive to give a good compromise between emission-free commuting and petrol-powered range and performance. Both cars make widespread use of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) to keep weight down, and both offer a raft of fascinating new driver assist and efficiency initiatives that seem likely to make it through to the real world. Read More

It's not often that a car has its first public showing nearly fifty years after it was built, but that's what happened at the recent Cholmondely Pageant of power when the newly-restored, one and only factory-built Low Drag Lightweight Jaguar E-Type was seen. The original crashed at very high speed testing at Montlhéry and was so badly damaged that it sat for 47 years before a complete restoration involving 7,000 hours of work and 90 per cent original parts yielded its magnificent original state. Great gallery showing the many moods of this priceless specimen of Jaguar DNA. Read More

The compact S.U.V. class looks set for some serious competition over the coming 12 months when a completely redesigned Honda CR-V will continue to sell against Toyota's RAV4 and Volkswagen's Tiguan. Plus Mazda's CX-5, which is expected to be very similar to Minagi and packed with the first comprehensive SkyActiv efficiency technologies, will join the ranks. Honda is the runaway leader in the segment and this update is a clear signal of its intention to stay there. The "Walter Mitty" lives we all lead is exemplified by the compact S.U.V. segment, where more than 95 percent of the vehicles sold never venture offroad. Read More

The first of the concept cars we'll see at this year's Frankfurt Motor Show has broken cover in the form of the Renault FRENDZY. It's the fourth Renault concept car based on its design strategy of addressing the needs of the different human “life stages”, the first three being the DeZir, Captur and the R-Space. The all-electric FRENDZY caters to the combined needs of work and family and is an electric commercial vehicle which uses an asymmetrical body and a raft of new technology to be both commercially viable and family friendly. Read More

With a top speed of just 15 mph (24 kph), Thomas Young's Bug-E electric vehicle concept is not likely to be a contender for the next must-have personal transport solution on our roads, but that's not what it's really about anyway. This multi-purpose four-wheeler is more suited to trundling around public parks and gardens, theme parks or the golf course - and it sports four rear storage options to help it fit into numerous usage scenarios. Users would also be able to slide the steering wheel into a left- or right-hand drive position, to share the responsibility of driving without having to swap seats, or to fit in with local conditions. Read More

Perhaps fearing that the brand is losing touch with "passionate drivers", Toyota is developing a new "affordable" sports car to fill the gap it left when it dropped the Supra and MR2 from its lineup. The FT-86 II concept, built on a Subaru platform under a partnership agreement, is a rear wheel drive coupe with smart styling that's clearly aimed at younger drivers. Toyota showed off the car in Melbourne, ahead of this weekend's Australian International Motor Show - and took the opportunity to give the press an advance look at the Prius C concept, Prius V, 2012 Hilux and all-new Yaris as well. Pics inside. Read More

NAU, the design studio behind the 360-degree Immersive Cocoon we checked out earlier this month, has penned this streamlined, zero-local-emission Ecco Camper concept with a view to inspiring a new way of getting away from it all in the 21st Century. Read More