Toyota is working on some sweet concepts for the upcoming Japan Mobility Show later this month.
As the world’s largest automaker, you’d imagine Toyota devotes huge resources toward cooking up concepts that offer some insight into the company’s (and perhaps the industry’s) future. And you’d be right, as it debuted a series of new concepts it’s working on and will unveil at the Japan Mobility Show in just a couple weeks. Before we cover them on the ground in Tokyo, however, let’s take a glimpse at what Toyota has coming down the pipeline as part of its livestream Monday morning.
Putting perhaps the most real-world concept first, Toyota teased a far more angular and electric Corolla concept. Yes, that Corolla — the automaker’s best-selling nameplate historically and still one of its most important cars to this day. In its minute-long teaser reel called “Mobility for All”, Toyota shows the Corolla Concept right at the end, where we can see a futuristic LED light signature up front, a squared-off rear end and even more angled elements in-between. For a relatively humble economy car, Toyota seems to be thinking bold here, especially with the steeply raked windshield and sloping roofline that makes this Corolla Concept look far more sports car-ish than you’d probably ever expect (even with the hot GR Corolla hatchback in the zeitgeist over the past few years).
In the teaser image, you can see a charge door just ahead of the thin sideview mirrors, suggesting its a full EV. However, we don’t have any technical specs on this car just yet — hopefully we’ll learn more at the Japan Mobility Show — but since it is a concept, we could be looking down the road a couple generations here. Toyota may take the next-generation Corolla all-hybrid at least, but we should still see internal combustion in a potential powertrain portfolio for the 13th-generation car, which should arrive in the near future.
Well, I wouldn’t have expected that from Lexus…
Believe it or not, Lexus does in fact have a minivan in its lineup — just not for the US. Tommy and Roman had a chance to check out the new LM in Japan last year, but the automaker is going one bolder here. The teaser doesn’t show too much, but you can see “LEXUS” in the wheels of this funkily shaped minivan concept. All six of them.
Again, we don’t have any technical specs, but to say this concept is a bit out there is putting it mildly. Even more interesting is what Lexus is calling this one: the LS Concept. The timing is interesting here, as Lexus is rolling out the final LS sedan right now…so the nameplate may actually live on in some form. That said, the likelihood that anything close to this concept would make production is slim. I think it would be awesome if Lexus actually went for it, though some of my TFL colleagues disagree (the fools).
A new one-of-a-kind Century
For decades, Toyota has carried a special kind of flagship in Japan — and it’s not a Lexus. It is, in fact, the Century, and it even saw a new SUV variant emerge a couple years ago. This one is a special build, as we’re looking at a two-door concept it’s calling “One of One”. That sounds pretty on the nose that the automaker doesn’t intend this as a production model, but you never know.
Apart from the sleek styling with thin LED lights and no rear windows, the Century Concept has a wild party trick: forward-sliding doors. Of the three concepts Toyota teased here, this one seems no more likely than the Lexus LS Concept, but both have the sort of outlandish touches you’d properly expect from a concept.
Stay tuned for the Japan Mobility Show on October 30 for more updates.
But wait, there’s more! Check out the Daihatsu Midget X Concept
We may just know Toyota and Lexus here in North America, while there’s the Century brand over in Japan. Toyota owns another brand that’s at the other end of the market, though, and that’s Daihatsu. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, the company building “small but capable” vehicles created the tiny Midget II, and it’s pulling on that history with this new “Midget X Concept”. If you’ve played the Gran Turismo games through the years, you’ll more easily recognize the Midget as a tiny little truck with bug eyes and a spare wheel hanging on the front.
It still has sort of dorky but adorable styling, and will arrive at the Japan Mobility Show as an electric kei car. There’s no spare wheel up front this time, but you do get little LED ring lights that stick out, so it still looks cute as can be. And with a small storage container hanging out back, this tike of a concept may actually hack it as a Japanese runabout. So, we could actually see this one make it to production, though it would stick to Japanese streets (can you imagine seeing these in North America? Though, some states are finally coming around to the idea of letting folks title and register kei vehicles…again, you never know).
