Toyota shares VW city car craving
Toyota Europe's design smarts on show at FrankfurtVolkswagen wasn't the only manufacturer looking for carbon PR credits at Frankfurt. Taking pride of place on Toyota's stand at the giant German show was the iQ.
Toyota's city car concept, the iQ is under 3m in length -- almost a foot shorter than the Smart (28cm) and close to two feet (58cm) under the diminutive Fiat 500. Indeed, it is positively dwarfed by Toyota's own Aussie market light car, the Yaris (see pics) which is 770mm longer.
Though Toyota was very careful to not mention the car's mechanicals, it claims the iQ's packaging could make as significant contribution to the green car market as Prius' hybrid drive.
"The iQ concept represents a paradigm shift in small car design, a concept car that challenges conventional thinking of automotive hierarchies: small yet spacious, premium yet small. Realized through the vision of an ultra compact, highly space efficient, environmentally friendly vehicle that maximizes the urban lifestyle of Europe's fashionable metropolitan dwellers," enthused Toyota at the debut.
Created at ED2, Toyota's French design studio, iQ features 3+1 seating. Most of the time the two front occupants' seating is conventional, however, to accommodate a third passenger, thanks to an asymmetric dash set-up, the front passenger seat can be moved to "a more forward position allowing more room and easier access to the rear area".
The third seat is centrally located. In this respect, the iQ differs from the three-place sportscar concept Mazda showed a few years back.
Toyota has also shrunk the car's HVAC units, instruments and controls to free up space. Provision is made to carry a fourth (child-sized) passenger or luggage.
An interesting use of packaging, the iQ is far from production ready.
Indeed, unlike VW, which started talking timelines and pricing for its up! yesterday (10,000 Euros for the developed market version and about 6000 for the emerging market 'stripper'), the Toyota is viewed as a much more long-term project.
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