Concept Cars

It may look like one of the most outrageous automotive concepts seen in many a year, but the Unimog 4WD Cabrio Truck concept created to celebrate 60 years of Mercedes Benz Unimog production actually has some basis in history - the very first Mercedes Unimog which rolled off the production line back on June 3, 1951 was also a cabrio, and it was also green, as has been almost every other Unimog in the intervening years. Based on the current Unimog U 5000 with its exceptional off-road capabilities, the Unimog Cabrio is apparently designed to bridge current and future Unimog design. Read More

This futuristic, zero emissions hovercraft concept won't be gracing our wilderness zones any time soon but it definitely merits a mention. Dubbed the "Aqua Volkswagen," the concept was created by Zhang Yuhan, a 21 year old graduate in Industrial Design at Xihua University, China. The concept is a finalist submission in the CDN China Car Awards, a competition created to reward the creativity of young designers. The brief for entrants was to create a "Chinese off-road vehicle" by Volkswagen with "go-anywhere" capabilities to tackle the vast expanse of wild countryside in China. Read More

UK-based MUGEN Euro have taken up the challenge to give the Honda CR-Z some extra grunt to produce the CR-Z MUGEN concept. The vehicle adds a supercharger to the CR-Z hybrid’s 1.5-liter gasoline engine and IMA electric motor to increase the vehicle’s output from 122 to 198 horsepower and ups the torque from 128 to 181 lb-ft. Honda UK and MUGEN have just released the first official pics of the vehicle ahead of its debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed to be held in West Sussex, England, in July. Read More

Unlike many of the concept cars we see at auto shows that are dummied up with clay, smoke and mirrors, Rolls Royce has always pursued an entirely different philosophy, building fully functioning “experimental vehicles.” Each such car is meticulously hand-built to investigate how the potential production model will operate in real world conditions. The first such vehicle (1EX) was constructed in 1919, predating the 1938 Buick Y-Job (often claimed to be the world’s first concept car) by almost two decades. The “Torpedo” styled 10EX was built in 1926 as a sports car version of the Phantom 1 and after many modifications, lapped Brooklands at an average speed of 91.2 mph. Most importantly, it stayed in the company as a staff car and occasional celebrity courtesy car for six years, being driven by many people of note, such as Lawrence of Arabia who once borrowed it for a European trip. Apart from being exquisitely beautiful, 10EX was one of the world’s first concept cars, has a splendorous and meticulously documented provenance, and … it’s for sale. Read More

French automotive manufacturer Peugeot is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year, and has promised quite a few significant announcements before the year is out. Its first electric car, the Peugeot iOn, is a rebadged Mitsubishi iMiEV, but the EX1 concept it showed last year is all its own work and looks to be a rip-snorter of a performance car to boot. Last week, the twin-electric motored 250 kW (340 bhp) EX1 set a new electric record for the Nurburgring Nordschleife circuit of 9:01.338 at an average speed of 138 km/h in adverse conditions whatsmore. Read More

Peugeot has dropped the HYbrid4 technology found in its 2010 SR1 Concept into a very different beast for the Shanghai Motor Show. The SXC (which stands for Shanghai Cross Concept) has a 1.6 liter, 160 kW internal combustion engine driving the front wheels and a 70 kW electric motor driving the rear, providing the option of electric-only two wheel drive or a four wheel drive hybrid mode. Read More

One of the most imaginative concept cars we’ve ever seen turned up at Auto Shanghai this week and it didn’t come from Japan, Germany, France or America – it was the result of two years work in China by Geely engineers and is the synthesis of over 60 IP-protected ideas. In essence, it’s an ultra compact, two-door, four-seater with a built-in, folding three wheeled electric scooter in the rear. When the scooter is docked, the car shares both its battery and electric motor to extend the all-electric range or ensure the scooter is fully charged. The vehicle is proposed as having choice of gas-electric hybrid or fully electric powerplants. Sheer genius … and a catchy name which must surely attract a legal challenge. Read More

Suzuki is having a bet each way in the performance vs fuel efficiency stakes with the unveiling of two new additions to its long-running line of Kizashi concepts at the New York International Auto Show. While the Kizashi EcoCharge hybrid concept combines a 2.0-liter petrol engine,15kW motor and a 115-volt air-cooled lithium-ion battery to optimize fuel efficiency, it's show floor stablemate the Kizashi Apex Concept is geared toward performance. Read More

Unveiled at the Seoul Motor Show, Ssangyong's KEV2 is an all-electric concept car based on the company's latest diesel engine Korando SUV. For the KEV2, the conventional drivetrain has been replaced by a 120 kW electric motor and 35kWh lithium-ion battery pack, which Ssangyong says will take the car to a top speed of 93 mph (150 km/h) and deliver a maximum range of just over 110 miles (180 km). Read More