Japan Makers Attending Party for Themselves: The Tokyo Motor Show
October 20, 2009
Imagine having a football, baseball or soccer game and the visiting team doesn't show up.
That's sort of what's going on this week at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show, where thanks to global belt-tightening and the ever-present perception of the Tokyo show as a home-team-dominated affair, the major U.S. and European automakers are effectively not coming to the game.
Although carrying on with the show is up to them alone, the Japanese makers have toned down the Tokyo show's typical hyperbole - even for Tokyo's typically far-out concept cars, not to mention the production or near-production unveilings. Environmental themes will dominate and any ostentatious displays of power and performance will be limited.
In fact, a cursory look at some of the Tokyo auto show's known unveilings might give the notion internal combustion has been eradicated. It's not quite that drastic, but the Tokyo show's alternative-propulsion models will make up the preponderance of concept and production-car unveilings. A snapshot by maker:
Honda Motor Co. Ltd. is providing a look at the production sheet metal of the long-awaited revival of the CRX 2-seater with the CR-Z concept, a car that promises to be one of the Tokyo show's headliners.
The CR-Z's new-age spin on the CRX formula is the use of Honda's Integrated Motor Assist hybrid-electric system to imbue the CR-Z with sporty-coupe performance (the original CRX was never a truly fast car) that emphasizes nimbleness while injecting today's requisite dose of economy. The engine is a 1.5-liter 4-cylinder grown from the 1.3-liter powerplant of the new Insight hybrid, while the "mild hybrid" IMA system can boost performance and economy.
The minivan segment needs some fresh air; Honda is showing a hybrid minivan, the Skydeck. With six seats and an innovative new entry feature for rear-seat passengers, the Skydeck could presage upgrades - particularly hybridization - for the next-generation Odyssey people-mover.
And not confirmed at press time was the possibility Honda will show a production-ready hybrid version of the popular Fit subcompact.
And of course everyone's got to have an electric car. Honda's concept is called EV-N, a kind of wacky city car that's vaguely retro and carries an attached battery-powered unicycle that balances itself, Segway-fashion. The EV-N showcases an all-encompassing Honda concept for sustainable generation of electricity.
Toyota Motor Co.'s two likely head-turners don't make an environmental statement. Toyota's done that - now its president thinks the company needs to demonstrate it's still got the ability to make passionate cars, so the FT-86 concept and the Lexus LF-A supercar are out to prove that. Both burn good 'ol gasoline and nothing else.
The LF-A is supposed to reveal the production-ready supercar Toyota has teased - tiringly so, now - for years. The front-mounted V10 is said to be 4.8 liters and make upwards of 600 horsepower for the rear wheels to distribute. Pricing will put the car firmly in the Lamborghini/Ferrari league.
And the FT-86 concept presages the rear-wheel-drive revival of the Celica, the affordable sport coupe Toyota famously dropped earlier this decade. The car, co-developed with Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd.'s Subaru (of which Toyota now owns about 17 percent), harkens back to a time when Celicas were rear-drive and supposedly pretty entertaining.
But the car reputedly relies mostly on Subaru mechanicals, including an Impreza platform modified for the rear-drive layout. The engine also is Subaru's famous "boxer" horizontally opposed layout, supposedly favored by the developers for its ability to be placed low.
Toyota's requisite electric car is the FT-EV concept. The car seeks to maximize the compactness of electric-drive componentry by rearranging the conventional layout of internal-combustion-engine vehicles. That means no hood to speak of an a truncated overall length 
that makes this city car's footprint markedly smaller than the already tiny iQ. Carving out max interior room is enabled by funky drive-by-wire joystick controls and elimination of the dashboard, among other familiar features.
And there could be U.S.-market implications for the Sai, a Toyota-badged version of the Lexus HS 250h hybrid. Although Toyota says for now the Sai is for the Japan domestic market, a sedan companion for the Prius in Toyota's U.S. showrooms is a distinct possibility.
Speaking of Subaru, the small automaker is showing an intriguing hybrid concept car, the Hybrid Tourer Concept, demonstrating what eventually may be Subaru's twist on the hybrid formula.
The Hybrid Tourer Concept is gull-winged grand touring car using a turbocharged boxer 4-cylinder and an electric motor at each axle, likely to impart Subaru's expected all-wheel-drive capability but also to optimize certain drive advantages. Lithium-ion batteries store the electricity for this car that also could indicate Subaru's coming advance for the boxer engine: direct fuel injection.
Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. will show a light-concept version of its important Leaf electric car, a vehicle the company believes can give it a headstart in the race to full-electric propulsion.
The Leaf has a reported 100-mile range from its lithium-ion battery pack, and test mules AutoObserver drove earlier this year prove the car has plenty of accelerative prowess combined with eerie silence. The car is coming to several pilot markets in the U.S. late next year.
A little lower on the kilowatt evolutionary scale is the weird Land Glider Concept, another 
electric car that also wants to be a motorcycle, as it's designed to lean into corners to sharpen the driving experience. Electric motors built into each rear-wheel hub - an idea promoted by many EV developers as the eventual future of electric drive - also can help vector this narrow city car entertainingly into corners.
Playing straight man to the Hybrid Land Glider is Nissan's new Fuga, the midsize sedan that in the U.S. is the Infiniti M. The new-generation production car unveiled at the Tokyo show also reveals what will be the Infiniti brand's first hybrid, combining Nissan's familiar 3.5-liter V-6 with Nissan's first in-house-designed hybrid system that clutches the electric motor inline with the V-6 (prior to this, Nissan's Altima hybrid repackaged Toyota's hybrid system).
Mitsubishi Motor Corp. is showing up at the Tokyo gathering with an interesting concept, the PX-MiEV. The car is billed as a plug-in hybrid-electric, but in concept appears to be more along the development lines of General Motors Co.'s "extended range" electric vehicle, the Chevrolet Volt.
The PX MiEV has a 1.6-liter gasoline engine that acts as an onboard generator if the twin drive motors (one on each axle) deplete the stored electricity from the car's battery pack. The front-axle motor is designed to do most of the driving, but in a trend-bucking parallel-hybrid layout, it appears the gasoline engine also is connected to the front wheels and is designed to propel the PX-MiEV when traveling at higher speeds, where Mitsubishi - a maker with a lot of electric-vehicle experience - claims electric drive is less efficient. -- Bill Visnic, Senior Contributing Editor
Photos by Manufacturers
1 - The 2009 Tokyo Motor Show holds press days later this week.
2 - The Honda CR-Z is a new-age spin on the old CRX.
3 - The Toyota FT-86 concept is an effort to show the automaker can make passionate cars.
4 - The Toyota Sai is a Toyota-badged Lexus HS 250h hybrid.
5 - The Subaru Hybrid Tourer concept is a gull-winged grand touring car with advanced technology.
6 - The Nissan Land Glider concept is an electric car that also wants to be a motorcycle.
7 - The Mitsubishi PX-MiEV is billed as a plug-in hybrid-electric car.
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