Nissan stole the Tokyo Motor Show limelight with a host of new models unveiled by CEO Carlos Ghosn on Wednesday.
Most important of the lot was the Juke Nismo concept, a car that shows how the performance arm could be used in the UK.
The Juke Nismo is currently slated as a ‘concept’, but Nissan GB managing director Jim Wright told Insider he could ‘imagine it in production reasonably soon’.
During the unveiling, Ghosn said Nismo has been an important part of Nissan for 30 years and to combine that with the Juke, which has now sold 232,000 units worldwide, was a great fit.
Also on the stand was the Pivo 3, an EV concept for urban mobility. Based on the Renault Twizzy, the car features advanced technology such as automatic valet parking and the ability to pick the owner up by using mobile phone technology to find them.
Nissan head of global product, Andy Palmer, told Nissan Insider that there were hurdles to overcome on legislation before the Pivo could be put into production though.
Currently it is classified as a quadracycle in Europe, but elsewhere it is seen as a car which has caused a few issues.
‘Yes we want to take the Renault Twizzy concept and Nissan-ise it, but first we need to work out what we need to do around the world so that product can exist,’ explained Palmer.
He added that Pivo shows what can be achieved with a car when the space where a combustion engine would traditionally be situated is utilised.
Also making a debut was the Nissan LEAF Nismo concept, another car that shows how the tuning arm could be deployed to make traditional models even more exciting.
Palmer added: ‘Nismo is about proof points to excitement. It’s about using racing DNA and bringing that to our mass brands. Bringing it to LEAF, for example, is about saying innovation and excitement can exist in an electric car.’
And finally the Nissan TownPod EV and Caravan models displayed what future transport could be like for families.
Nissan Insider will be running a series of stories from the Tokyo Motor Show over the coming days. Check back daily for more updates.
