日本自動車デザインコーナー「Japanese Car Design Corner」

2010年12月10日

Mitsubishi reveals sketches of new small global car

Mitsubishi has revealed those official sketches of its upcoming small global car, which is going to be produced in a new facotry in Thailand. The new model will be sold in emerging markets, as well as Japan, but it is not known whether it will make to Europe. Expect to see it at the Geneva Motor Show in March.

[Source: Autocar]

Toyota displays iQ-based EV in Japan

Toyota displayed its iQ-based EV (earlier post) at Eco-Products 2010 in Japan. The capacity and the voltage of the lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery are about 11 kWh and 270 V respectively. The drive range of the vehicle is 105 km under the JC08 test mode.

The charging time is about 10 hours with AC100V input and about four hours with AC200V input (in the normal charging mode). Under the CHAdeMO charging standards, which are promoted by Japan's CHAdeMO Association, the EV can be charged up to 80% capacity in about 15 minutes. The connectors for normal charging and rapid charging are located on the front side of the vehicle.

The actual car is scheduled to be mass-produced and released in the Japanese, US and European markets in 2012.

[Source: Tech-On!]

2010年12月9日

Subaru shows carbon fibre roof of Impreza WRX STi tS

Back on December 3 (earlier post), it was revealed that the upcoming Impreza WRX STI tS will feature a carbon fibre roof, which has been developed with Toray (東レ). Subaru has now revealed a teaser image and the only new info is... that the tS version will be only available in Japan (as with the Forester tS STi).

20 years of Lexus in the UK: 1990 LS 400 meets 2010 LS 600h

Scoop: Next-gen Toyota Camry

The next-gen Toyota Camry will be available only as a hybrid in Japan (earlier post) and it is expected to be launched in July 2011. According to early info, the next-gen Camry will share its platform with the Toyota Avensis, although it is not clear whether it will use the platform of the current-gen Avensis, or the platform of the new Camry will used in the next-gen Avensis. I reckon that the latter scenario is more likely.

[Source: Mag-X via CarSensor]

2010年12月8日

Some new scale model pre-orders placed!

Further to my latest pre-order for an Advantage GT-R Concept scale model (earlier post), I have placed three new ones today. Note that the photos of the Civic Type R model are from moke-up, so the real thing will much more detailed. Hopefully, I should get all of them by the end of March.

Honda Civic Type R 1999 EK9 (Championship White) by Interallied (インターアライド)
Lexus IS-F 2008 (Black) by Kyosho
Toyota Crown Athlete 2008 (White) by Kyosho

Nissan Leaf's rear aerodynamic design

Since fuel efficiency, range in the case of EVs, plays a very important role nowadays, it is self understanding that among top priorities when designing a new car is aerodynamics.Inoue Makoto, chief designer of Nissan's Global Design Product Division, gives Leaf's rear design as an example.

The air flows coming from the roof, side and under the floor had to be separated. For that reason, the taillights have a a more convex shape in order to act as spoilers. Also, the lack of an exhaust sysem has enabled a much better design, aerodynamically, which would not be possible in the case of a car equipped with an internal combustion engine.

Even the design of the antenna has been carefully considered in order to limit the generated wind noise. Therefore, the antenna has a pentagon shape with a round tip. Another important area was the edge of the rear bumper, in order to have a clear separation of flow.

[Source: Response]