Thanks to Lascelles for finding this wonderful video showing the most daring concepts from Toyota and Lexus during the Tokyo Motor Show. Although in German, we can glimpse quite a number of interesting concepts such as the Hi-CT, the Rin, the i-Real (which promises unlimited mobility, according to the engineer) and production ready models such as the Crown Hybrid, which owns a lot to the Lexus LS600h.

Just before the Lexus come up, a German engineer from Toyota speaks about the 1/X, weighing just 926 lbs., the car is literally a third of the weight of Toyota's current green car standard, the Prius. Featuring a 500cc engine plus a hybrid electric motor with plug-in capability, this car could deliver 2 l/100 km (that converts to an amazing 117 mpg).

Then the video shows two Lexus cars with hybrid powertrains: the ISF (arriving in Europe in 2008) and LF-XH.

[Source: YouTube]

I think we have a winner for the greenest car at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show. Below the fold is a video all about the Mitsubishi iMiEV Sport concept. It's a plug-in electric car with a cool tear drop shape and a number of cool ways of charging the batteries. The iMiEV's lithium-ion batteries can be charged via a wireless microwave charger in your garage floor which means you don't have to struggle to plug it in.

Not keen on turning your garage in a giant microwave? Don't worry, the iMiEV has solar panels on the roof and micro wind turbines in the front grill. The iMiEV has other strange features like the ability to connect to your computer, in-hub motors and an electric plug that flips open. BTW I think the way you say the car's name is eye My EV, which also gives iMiEV our award for strangest car name at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show.

[Source: YouTube and tipster Domenick]

The cars from the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show aren't news to any of us at this point, but we can now gawk anew at the Pivo 2 and the CR-Z hybrid, the Lexus LF-Xh and the Subaru G4e (above) in screen-saver quality phots. Other vehicles our new gallery include the Toyota 1/X Concept, the Mazda Premacy Hydrogen RE Hybrid and the Audi metroproject quattro design study. You can click on any of the names highlighted above to see high-resolution photos or on one of the thumbnails below and scan your way through all 45 images.

I swear, Honda's soon-to-be-produced CR-Z looks better each time I look at it. You?


[Source: Newspress]

For every major auto show these days, Honda presents a gallery of images and videos on its corporate website. For the 40th Tokyo Motor Show, which is now taking place, Honda is highlighting not just the CR-Z hybrid and FCX and Puyo, but also the good old Civic hybrid and wheelchair accessibility.

You can watch a video of the new CR-Z hybrid concept here (although I'll admit I wasn't able to watch the whole thing. It's supposed to be a minute long, but it kept stalling after 15 seconds when I tried to watch). The full speech by Honda president and CEO Takeo Fukui can be seen (well, I had the same hanging video problem) and read here. Hm, stalling video and no high-res images? I think Autoblog does it better.

[Source: Honda]

Below the fold are two videos by Nissan released for the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show. The first video shows the making of the electric concept car, the Pivo 2 and has a quick chat with Tomoko Sato and Mariecamill Lecoq, two Japanese and French designers of the car.

The second video includes the making of the RDBX, a car a lot like the Mixim, which is going after the youth market with large, media displays. The 2007 Tokyo Motor Show runs through November 11th and opens to the public from October 27th.

[Source: YouTube]

The Exhibition Model of the Mazda Premacy Hydrogen RE Hybrid is on display this week at the Tokyo Motor Show, and Mazda swears it's "a fresh approach to the future of Zoom-Zoom." Man, I like the whole "Zoom-Zoom" thing less each time I hear it.

The Premacy Hydrogen RE uses an updated version of the dual fuel rotary engine (it can use gasoline or hydrogen) that has been in use in the RX-8 Hydrogen RE. The Mazda Premacy Hydrogen RE Hybrid is still in development, but it does offer extended range, a larger carrying capacity than the RX-8 and a "Powerful fun-to-drive feeling."

Mazda is also bringing plant-based Biotechmaterial and news of new recycling methods to Tokyo. Read all about them after the jump.

[Source: Mazda]

The Mazda Taiki, bowing today at the Tokyo Motor Show, is not the greenest car on these pages, but it certainly is fun to look at. With the new Renesis 2 rotary engine under the Nagare hood, there is at least the potential to run this thing on hydrogen in some fashion. Mazda is also displaying the hybrid hydrogen/electric Premacy in Tokyo. We'll see if the Autoblog photogs will be willing to snap some shots of minivan, a minivan!, for us.

We've got the official images of the Taiki from Mazda in the gallery below, and you can see the high-res photos from the Autoblog team in Tokyo over on this page.



[Source: Mazda via Autoblog]

Click on the A1 concept to enlarge

Over the past couple of months, we've seen numerous rendered images of what the upcoming Audi A1 would look like and now we finally have the real thing. The A1 Metroproject Quattro is a concept that will appear next week at the Tokyo Motor Show previewing the production A1. This smallest Audi has a nose dominated by a grille that looks like it's sized for the big Q7 V-12 TDI. Propulsion comes from the 150hp 1.4L TFSI four cylinder that appears in several other VW group cars.

Power from the engine goes to the front wheels by way of a dual clutch gearbox. To earn the Quattro badge, the rear wheels are propelled by a 41 hp electric motor. The electrons required to get 200 Nm of torque out of that motor are stored in a lithium ion battery pack. The A1 has plug-in capability and can reportedly go 60 miles in pure electric mode. The 12.8 foot long A1 is rated at 48 mpg and has CO2 emissions of 112 g/km. The production A1 should arrive in 2009.

[Source: MotorAuthority]