TOKYO MOTOR SHOW: Honda lifts wraps off Sports EV Concept

Honda's Sports EV Concept car has made its debut today, promising to bring driver and vehicle closer together in partnership. And Honda has coined a new portmanteau word for its combination of practicality and aesthetics: 'beautility'.

According to Honda CEO Takahiro Hachigo: "This Sports EV Concept is a new proposal from Honda, a company which always… regardless of the requirements of the times… wants to provide its customers with the joy of driving, at the will of the driver, with a sporty and exhilarating driving experience."

Hashigo-san says the show car is based on the same platform underpinning the Urban EV Concept that's also present in Tokyo and was unveiled in Frankfurt around six weeks ago.

"We further lowered the vehicle's centre of gravity to realise a sporty driving experience that performs at the will of the driver.

"As for the design, we adopted the 'low & wide' package which represents the 'beautility' of a sports car, striving to realise a design which will be loved by a broad range of people for a long time."

Honda is claiming that the Sports EV Concept is chock full of artificial intelligence, but leaves it open to interpretation as to whether that means the car should be capable of level-four autonomy. There's no word either on the prospects of the Sports EV Concept – or something very much like it – reaching production.

It's by no means the first occasion Honda has set to work on an eco-friendly sports hatch, with previous examples including the original Insight from the late 1990s, plus the award-winning CR-Z more recently.

As well as the Sports EV Concept, Honda's Urban EV Concept is on display, as is the NeuV concept that premiered in Las Vegas earlier this year, at the CES. Of the three design studies, only the Urban EV Concept is confirmed for production.

In addition to the concepts, the production cars and the motorbikes, Honda has also developed a number of mobility vehicles that were also introduced at the show. These include the IeMobi concept – which looks like a 1990s open-plan office on the move.

The FureMobi Concept is a funky-looking mobility scooter of the kind hip-replacement patients drive down to the shops. Honda says it will seat two. Looks like one might be forced to stand, as far as we can tell.

Then there's the ChairMobi Concept, which is sort of a high-riding wheelchair (with three wheels), presumably for people who, by virtue of imbalance and/or laziness, can't hack riding a Segway. It has a seat that always remains level on inclines and can be used inside and out. Essentially, it's designed as a mobility device that occupies the same 'footprint' as pedestrians.

The RoboCas is, to use Honda's own words: "a small-sized electric mobility product created to make people’s dreams and ideas come true. Different types of carrying space with a canopy can be freely combined with a compact-sized vehicle body base which has a driving function."

Finally, there's the Ai-Miimo Concept. It's not so much a vehicle as a self-propelled, self-guided electric lawn mower. Sort of a turf Roomba. Of all Honda's concepts, this is the oddest looking, but the one offering 'must-have' appeal for Australian property owners – it's the very encapsulation of 'uglinomics'.