http://www.asahi.com/english/business/TKY200310160126.htmlNext-generation vehicles that are easy on the environment are preparing to grab headlines at the 37th Tokyo Motor Show, to start Oct. 24 at Makuhari Messe in Chiba Prefecture.
All the usual suspects, including Honda Motor Co., General Motors Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp., have been hard at work primping their entrants.
Honda plans to unveil a concept car, Kiwami, with a fuel cell system whose hydrogen storage tank is located in the center of the vehicle, rather than at the front or back. Such placement has enabled the automaker to lower the body height to 1.25 meters.
GM, meanwhile, plans to steal the show with its Hy-wire fuel cell car.
Fuel cell vehicles are powered by electric motors fitted with fuel cell units that create electricity through a chemical reaction of oxygen and hydrogen. Automakers have been stepping up development of such cars, since their power units emit nothing but water.
A number of hybrid vehicles, which use electric motors at slow speeds and are assisted with gasoline engines at higher speeds, will also be on display at the show.
Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., maker of Subaru vehicles, will present the B9 Scrambler, a two-seater hybrid roadster that runs on its electric motor until it hits as fast as 80 kilometers per hour.
Mazda Motor Corp. will showcase an RX-8 sports car powered by a newly developed rotary engine in which hydrogen, as well as conventional gasoline, is combusted.
Automakers have been intriguing motor show audiences with their eco-friendly vehicles for several years. The difference this year is that the cars are no longer of the no-frills, bare-bone variety, but models that make better use of such things as information-technology that could be on the road in the near future.
Toyota says it will introduce the single-seat PM electric vehvehicle, a car equipped with a device for vehicle-to-vehicle communication, enabling it to share information on such things as the route to a destination.
Mitsubishi Motors Corp. will present a concept car named i, which uses a round memory card as an ignition key. Future owners will be able to use the card to download data such as music and maps from their personal computers at home before they go driving.
Nissan Motor Co. plans to play up Japanese culture in its lineup this year, with the front grille of its Serenity designed to look like the face of a kabuki actor in full makeup.
Nissan's Fuga, a prototype luxury sedan, features panels made of hinoki, or Japanese cypress, and coated with Japanese lacquer.
This year's show, which will run until Nov. 5, will focus on passenger cars and motorcycles.
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