Top 10 Concept Cars Showcased At 2010 Paris Motor Show
Set your eyes on what could become the cars of the next few years
Cars are definitely a part of our lives and they offer so many benefits that it’s definitely hard to list them all. For starters, with the help of the car you can easily say you feel as if you have “wings”. You can travel to anywhere at any time you like. You won’t get rained on, you have a personal little bubble of your own when traveling from A to B. Shopping has become a lot easier as well, with the help of a trunk that can store all of the things you want to take home with you. Finally, cars serve as an indicator of a person’s social status, personality and brings enthusiasts of certain car brands together. I’ll just leave it at that.
Like any other type of technology, car technology is constantly evolving and adapting to the time we live in. Back in the day, people were aspiring for bigger, more spacious cars to fit a whole large family in. Things have changed a bit as nowadays we have less space to dispose of and less fuel to guzzle through. That’s why cars are now adapting to all this. You’ve already “met” hybrid cars, attempting to lay low on gas and consume a bit of power as well. Even SUVs are becoming more economical. On top of that, some car maker decided to keep the costs and size of their vehicles down to adapt to cities that are already packed with vehicles, where it’s extremely hard to find a parking spot for, say, a Dodge Ram. Increasingly interested in what the car of the future will look like now that times are ‘a changing, the best thing to do is to check out the latest concepts that were showcased at the Paris Motor Show. MotorCrave has come up with a top ten of them and we’ve decided to post them here for all of you to enjoy. So grab your coffee, glasses or whatever else you think you need and have a stare at these beauties. Let’s start with number 10.
Or as the company who came up with it calls it, “a striking vision of future urban electric transport”. It’s apparently meant to act as a loose nucleus, a “wild atom”. We can’t disagree because honestly we can’t really come up with a viable description for how odd this little vehicle looks. We’ll just leave it at that. It’s clear what the company was aiming for though. This vehicle can fit three people at the same time, despite its small size and it still features that typical Kia “tiger nose”.
The driver as well as the passengers will get perfect vision courtesy of the glass at the top of the car. The idea behind this was to offer a design that’s similar to the one of a helicopter. The seats were created to be “non-automotive”, simple and nearly furniture like. Inside you’ll only find one button while nearly everything is controlled with the help of touch screens and Transparent Organic LED displays, showing a speedometer, battery charge gauge and several other details. Lithium polymer gel batteries were used to keep the Pop going. They’re powering a 50Kw electric motor which will be good for a 100-mile range. The top speed recorded is 87 miles (140km) per hour.
Ah, the baby Rover. I’ve been attracted to this from the very first moment I set my eyes on it. Some people will love the power, huge size and capabilities of a regular Rover. I’ve personally always wanted all that but in a slightly smaller package, to fit my own size. It’s quite possible that other people will agree with me. Since the Evoque has been around for quite a while on the web (we’ve seen photos and found out all the details) most people will probably not jump up with excitement while seeing this one.
But the fact remains, the Evoque is the smallest, lightest and most fuel efficient Range Rover created so far. It’s said to have under 130g/km of CO2 emissions, so guess what, it’s rather green too, despite the shiny silver exterior you’ll discover in the photos. To come up with higher fuel efficiency, Evoque’s maker significantly reduced the size of the car that’s roughly 17 inches shorter than other Range Rover sport vehicles. But it’s clearly not underequipped. Take a quick trip to the inside of the vehicle and you’ll discover an eight inch dual view screen for viewing DVDs as well as providing directions, a full-sized glass panoramic roof and all the comfort you’d find in other Range Rovers. After seeing this one at the 2010 Paris Motor Show you’ll also get to see it on the street at the end of 2011.
Some people disagree on whether we’ll ever get to see this one turn into an actual car you can buy or not. But as good as it looks, most will be happy to even see some of the design elements implemented in another model. The Shinari concept that roughly translates to “resistance to being bent” according to Auto Blog, will serve as a starting point for Mazda’s new Kodo design language. This means that we’re bound to see more of this design used in other Mazda cars of the future.
One of the key people behind the Kodo type of design, Ikuo Maeda, Mazda’s global head of design describes it as a form with a soul, or attempting to bring form to life. The three key elements for the theme are speed, tension and alluring. Reading those three words will often result in thinking about attraction. That’s possibly why some people might find this concept irresistible.
Some people have already seen this one at the 2010 Detroit Motor Show. In Paris, they got to to see nearly the same car. The exterior design will most likely remain the same but one thing might differ. Initially it came with a 200 horsepower dual-rear-motor poewertrain and lithium-ion battery pack but according to recent rumors, we might actually end up with a car that’s a hybrid rather than electric.
The performance of the Audi seen in Detroit was satisfying though not extremely impressive. It allegedly could pull of 62 mph in 5.9 seconds and reach a top speed of 124 mph. As we wait to see if any changes have occurred since then, the new Paris e-tron concept is said to be a near-production design. This means it might pass you by on the street quite soon, possibly as early as 2012.
