Concept cars on display at Tokyo Auto Show

The fun in the big car shows is the concepts that often never make the production line but sometimes the innovations will. The most interesting of these shows has always been the Tokyo show, at least in my mind! The Globe and Mail has a great photo slide show of a number of the new concepts on display and it's apparent that small and green are big themes. I'm particularly fond of Toyota's new hybrid urban truck 'Hi-CT.' and the Nissan Skyline GT-R! Daimler's subsidiary Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus has an interesting hybrid light-duty dump truck, not sure who the target market is for this but it's kinda cool.

Nissan's Pivo 2 concept car...cool!

Here's a little car that can get you out of, and / or into, tight spots! Nissan will be displaying the Pivo 2 concept car at the 2007 Tokyo auto show, an electronic 2 seater that's passenger compartment can revolve to face forward or back with 4 wheels that can turn 90 degrees allowing the car can parallel park by sliding sideways into a spot. The control console includes what Nissan calls a "Robotic Agent." You can talk to the agent about how the car is running and it can tell you where to locate the nearest parking spot. No specs on range or speed yet! Now that's a Smart Car! See c|net's news.com for more, link above.