DETROIT MOTOR SHOW: Nissan IMs concept revealed

Despite a scatter-gun approach that nails just about every trending element in the automotive industry today (EV powertrain, camera mirrors, suicide doors, augmented reality, boosted ride height), the fact that the new Nissan IMs concept is a sedan SUV, not a wagon, will raise eyebrows.

Has Nissan foreseen a future trend?

Naturally, the futuristic concept car will drive itself and allow occupants to take a nap thanks to an advanced sensor suite overseen by more self-learning AI personalities than the secret Skynet server farm buried deep below the Siberia tundra.

Occupants can decide to drive the Nissan IMs concept if they like but they better buckle up because it's likely to be faster than a Nissan GT-R. Says Nissan, the IMs' twin electric motors blast out an incendiary 360kW and 800Nm of torque.

Factor in all-wheel drive and you're looking at outrageous launches that "…not only keep up with modern-day sports sedans but leave most of them in the dust," according to the company.

An air suspension system constantly adapts the IMs' pitch through corners, so it can maintain what Nissan claims is exceptional traction and cornering performance in virtually any scenario.

The Japanese car-maker, whose former boss Carlos Ghosn is languishing in prison, says the IMs concept has an EV cruising range of around 600km. And thanks to its jacked-up ride height, it can go places most regular sedans cannot.

Inside Nissan's fantasy car is a five-seat layout with a difference. The conventional two seats up front and a three-row bench in the back has been dumped. Instead, the rear "1 + 2" bench seat can be transformed (via folding the outboard positions) into what the multi-national corporation calls an extravagant 'premier seat' that is "worthy of world-class executive travel".

The car also uses augmented reality to allow the driver to see around corners and get a pre-visualisation of impending traffic snarls and ways around them, without the driver having to take their eyes off the road.

However, via clever facial recognition technology, the car will sense if the driver is fatigued, distracted or possibly about to enter a fit of road rage, then respond accordingly by retracting the steering wheel and rotating the front seats around for a relaxing lounge-room style configuration.

What if you have no friends or family in the car? No worries, because the IMs concept can summon an avatar to sit with you and, we surmise, make idle chit-chat about the weather, religion, sport and politics.

The vast majority of the Nissan IMs concept car's features are pie-in-the-sky at present (including the Knight-rider inspired steering wheel and strobing LED front bar), but the exterior design is one area that could find its way into real-world car within years, rather than decades.

"Advances in electric vehicle technology and autonomous driving have allowed our designers to break free of the platform and packaging rules that constrain traditional passenger vehicles, to create a completely new type of car," said Alfonso Albaisa, senior vice president for design at Nissan.

"The IMs explores the limits of sedan design with an approach that elevates the category in both look and functionality."

It's not clear if Nissan is plotting a production version of the high-performance AWD EV super sedan just yet but several design cues may have merit. Camera wing mirrors, Mazda RX-8 inspired suicide rear doors and invisible doors handles with eClinch technology are all production viable.