Tokyo Motor Show: Technology, Environment, Performance and Showmanship
October 19, 2007

By Peter Nunn

Over the coming days, many of the industry’s leading lights will be boarding flights to Japan for the 40th Tokyo Motor Show, which opens its doors to the world on Wednesday, October 24.

What will be big in Japan this year?

First, technology and plenty of it, much of it geared inevitably toward the environment through a fresh array of plug-in hybrids, electrics, clean diesels and more. 

Next, speed and excitement, courtesy of a new wave of Japanese high-performance cars, led by the Nissan GT-R and new Subaru Impreza WRX STI.

Third, plenty of show concepts, (28 at the last count), some serious, some less so, and as ever it’s the latter than helps give the Tokyo Show its unique fun and fantasy feel.

Yes, at its best, the Tokyo Show can be this beguiling, entertaining extravaganza that sometimes –- but not always –- gives you a pointer to the state of the Japanese car industry, and where it’s going.

On top of all this, the Tokyo Show has three major calls to make this year. First, the hope is that the buzz of the show will get people buying cars again. In a desperately sluggish home market, vehicle sales have been flat or falling now for 18 months straight.

Young Japanese have also lost interest in cars in a big way, for a whole variety of reasons. So again, organizers and makers would just love it if the cars at the show and razzmatazz somehow got them revved up and thinking about cars and driving again.

The Tokyo Show itself also seems to be at some kind of turning point. Once upon a time, if you really wanted to know what Honda, Nissan and Toyota were going to do next, you had to come to the Tokyo Show. Today, though, there’s more and more Japanese brand activity at the big U.S. shows -– Detroit, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York -– so Tokyo’s impact seems diminished somewhat.

So in a way, it’s now gone back to being a domestic show, geared up for a family-type audience, which likes a bit of Disneyland mixed in with all the hard, new serious metal.

Also, for the first time since 1999, we have an all-inclusive show again. That’s to say, cars, motorcycles and commercial vehicles all together in one (cramped) show complex. With no new space added since 1999, it really is a kind of back to the future.

Nissan GT-R: Already the Star

For gearheads, the car of the show already looks like a done deal. Nissan’s eagerly awaited, much-hyped GT-R supercoupe finally gets to go live in front of a world audience.

Nissan has poured everything into this immensely fast, Corvette-sized, V6 twin-turbo 4WD coupe that’s been meticulously benchmarked against the Porsche 911 Turbo. With a starting price of some $67,000 in Japan, the new GT-R is in every way a genuine modern-day sports phenomenon and crowning glory for Carlos Ghosn’s team.

In fact, the aura surrounding the GT-R already seems to have one untoward effect: frightening off Lexus and Acura from showing the next versions of their supercoupes.

Yes, Tokyo 2007 was supposed to be a high-stakes power game between the GT-R and the next, refreshed versions of the Lexus LF-A and Acura’s Advanced Sports car concept (aka “the next NSX.”).

Instead, the LF-A is unchanged from Detroit this year and the Acura is a no-show, two symbols perhaps of how tough Japan’s luxury market is really turning out to be.

Nissan is also picking up on two key themes of the show. First, the growing interaction between cars and humans and the increasing sophistication of drive-by-wire technology.

Both are at work in Pivo 2, a wacky bubble-top electric city car concept with a rotating cabin, a follow -up from the Pivo that starred back in the 2005 Tokyo Auto Show.

The fact that Pivo 2 has four independently turning wheels is clever enough. It also has a much improved motor plus lithium-ion battery pack.

But wait. It also comes with its own small talking cockpit robot, to “advise” you on what’s around, where to park, etc. The little robot with rotating head is also seen as company for insecure Japanese drivers (who maybe find it difficult to interact with other people, etc). As such, it’s either brilliantly inventive or chillingly Orwellian. Or both.

The shifting social theme continues with Nissan’s R.D/B.X, a four-seat open ‘sports car’ concept for Japan’s Gen Y. The key to this otherwise undistinguished design is ‘space,’ as many young Japanese now prefer to go out in groups rather than as dating couples.

Toyota: Plugged In

Toyota has this same kind of thing covered with the Hi-CT, a small, edgy youth-oriented urban truck study with plug-in hybrid powertrain.

Toyota is very big on plug-in hybrids at the show this year, models that can be charged from an external power source, are simpler and have a longer cruising distance than normal hybrids. Look for plug-in in the next Prius family.

Toyota continues to push the green envelope, as its impressive iQ concept, a very cool near future tiny, three-seat, low-C02 city car, reprises from Frankfurt.

However, the ace in its pack at Tokyo is the 1/X, a fascinating ultra-economy rear-engined 500cc hybrid sedan study that again uses plug-in technology.

With a lightweight carbon-fiber frame, space efficient rear-midship layout, the 1/X is designed to offer Prius-style cabin space but in a Yaris-class body that’s just one-third the weight.

The 1/X, also running as an FFV (flexible-fuel vehicle), is also set up to offer 50 percent better economy than today’s Prius. Interested? A lot of people will be.

A new hybrid version of the domestic Crown sedan and a rerun of the exciting, Supra-like FT-HS sports coupe (from Detroit) further underline Toyota’s push with hybrids.

So does the Lexus LF-Xh, officially a “show study model” but at the same time a big clue as to how the muscular, classy next RX 400h SUV will shape up. Underneath, there’s a next generation V6 plus a high-power hybrid drivetrain.

Honda: Having a Fit

Honda’s presence at the Tokyo Show centers first and foremost on the new Fit (Jazz), which comes in 1.3 and 1.5 forms, is bigger and roomier than the current model and commercially, by far the most important Japanese market intro at the show.

Continuing the compact theme, Honda also has two small concepts: the CR-Z, as a small slinky hybrid sports coupe that points the way to both a new, long-awaited CRX and replacement for the Insight. The real thing is tipped for a 2009 intro.

Then there’s the Puyo, a bubble-like, fuel-cell-powered concept with soft-touch silicon body, which Honda’s conceived as a kind of friendly, adorable four-wheeled pet.

Yes, really. Puyo looks and is comically strange indeed but the soft, silicon body has a serious side: as a possible future technology for pedestrian protection.

Just like all the domestic brands, Honda is struggling in Japan right now. But the introduction of America’s Accord as the new JDM Inspire is one move to try to boost luxury sales.

Mitsubishi: Comeback Kid Evolving

Three years ago, Mitsubishi was almost down and out. Today, it’s back with an impressive product-led recovery and at the show, Mitsu will officially debut the brilliant new Lancer Evolution X sports sedan. Also, the Concept-ZT, a big, rather sober-looking sedan concept, albeit with a 2.2-liter clean diesel on board.

Clean Power

All the Japanese majors are working hard on new clean diesels and the Nissan Intima, a big luxurious sedan study (it will become the next JDM Nissan Teana) in turn previews the new V6 clean diesel that will appear in the 2010 Maxima in the U.S.

Eschewing hybrids, Mitsubishi is still a strong believer in small electric cars, and the i MiEV Sport is a funky coupe version of the company’s cutting-edge, production i minicar complete with three electric motors, 4WD and an aluminum frame. They won’t build it but it’s another way of making eco-tech look different and exciting.

Mazda’s take on clean engine technology includes, of course, diesels but also, uniquely, the hydrogen rotary engine. Mazda’s showing its Premacy (Mazda5) minivan with a hydrogen rotary engine again, with Mazda’s own developed hybrid, but this time as an improved package, and the real thing will go on limited lease sale in Japan in 2008.

Ingeniously, Mazda is also developing a bigger-capacity (yet physically smaller) next-generation rotary engine. Dubbed the 16X, it has 20 percent more power, yet cleaner emissions than today’s RX-8 unit and stars in the Taiki, a fabulously swoopy Tokyo Show concept that’s a far-off suggestion of how a possible future RX-7 sport coupe might be packaged. Taiki also continues Mazda’s reputation for cutting-edge design.

Subaru’s product strategy has been patchy of late, and that shows in its Tokyo Show offerings. On the one hand, it has the new Impreza WRX STI, one of the hottest of hot cars in all enthusiast motordom, a car also developed in total secrecy, like the Nissan GT-R, which has only made its cult following and news value even stronger.

However, Subaru’s other two Tokyo Show offerings, the G4e, a small electric-powered subcompact, and seven-seat Exiga minivan have had very mixed reviews to date.

Quietly and confidently, Suzuki continues to expand and improve its product range and post-Frankfurt, Suzuki’s giving us another look at its D-segment Kizashi concept, this time as a stylish crossover SUV with Suzuki’s own 3.6-liter V6, six-speed auto and all-wheel drive. Clearly, the Accord-Camry-class Kizashi is being developed with a range of body styles and the first models are tipped to appear in 2009.

Suzuki, like Toyota, is also investigating the curious world of electric, single-seat personal mobility devices (for when we’ve all given up walking) with the PIXY. Toyota’s is the i-REAL but they will always be a very acquired taste….

Japan’s unique 660cc minicar sector naturally sees a lot of action with new entries and show models from Suzuki and Daihatsu, but these are irrelevant to America.

Underlining Tokyo’s status as a true global show, Audi’s A1, the new BMW M3 saloon and Fiat 500 Abarth are among those from outside reportedly debuting at the show.

Industry movers and shakers, analysts, media and designers traveling to Tokyo will see a uniquely different show this year, and the omens are good. Speed, ecology, fun and weirdness, Tokyo has it all.

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