Tokyo : The Future Through Japanese Eyes
The theme of this year’s Tokyo Motor Show was «Open Future», and the show has been reinvented to provide visitors with a vision of a future mobility society; to this end, the show’s scope has been ex-panded to encompass sub-themes like «The Excitement of Cars», «Future Homes,» and «Future Towns.»
Key takeaways
• The show was almost entirely Japanese. Daimler and Renault were there, but that’s about it for non- Japanese automakers, and those two European companies didn’t launch any world-firsts at the Tokyo show; it really is a regionally-focused event. As such…
• …The cars shown catered for the needs and wants of a densely-populated country with few onshore energy resources. So there were lots of EVs, small and really small cars, and retro-styled car concepts.
• The auto usage development path is forking; splitting in two: city mobility with small cars, and driving pleasure with big-ger ones. Lighting to meet new use cases have to be studied and understood.
• Japanese makers presented interesting cars and technologies with some very imaginative innovations.
• Clean mobility is presented and seen as a high priority. Cleaner engines, electrics, and hybrids dominated the show; most of the presentations and communications were focused on EVs. Automakers are facing tightening emissions restrictions in many markets—in Europe, for example, makers will have to pay huge penalties if they violate the 95 g/km CO2 threshold in 2020—and buyers increasingly prioritise a reduced climate footprint.
• Communication by lighting is gaining Traction. Ichikoh and Koito put forth strong presentations with a variety of concepts.
• interior lighting is going from strength to strength. There were a lot of concept cars with a great deal of interior lighting innovation on display. The Toyota-Lexus cars were one notable example.