2011 Tokyo Auto Show: First Look: 2012 Nissan Pivo3 Concept
By Ben Timmins
Nissan has pulled the wraps off of its newest concept for the Tokyo Motor Show, and it's a funky electric city car called the Pivo3.
The Pivo3 is the third generation of Nissan Pivo, a concept model that has been shaped and tweaked since 2005. While the Pivo 1 and Pivo 2 both had a much more bubbly appearance, the new Pivo3 has a more chiseled, angular look. It receives a smattering of the same zero emissions badges from and blue-accented trim from the current Nissan Leaf, and tight, trapezoidal headlights.
The Pivo3, like its predecessors, is Nissan's vision of a future where the already-sparse parking situation in most cities is even tighter. The car uses an all-electric powertrain with in-wheel motors, and a comically tight steering rack: Nissan says the Pivo3 can make a complete U-turn on a 13-foot-wide street, but that if you really crank the wheel, the Pivo has a turning radius of a shade under seven feet.
This should make the Pivo3 easy to park, although the car is capable of parking itself. The Pivo3 is designed to work with future infrastructure that theoretically allows it to autonomously drive itself through parking lots and garages, and then park itself - all without any involvement from the driver. The system, called Automated Valet Parking, should also work to find places to recharge the car.
Inside, the Pivo3 uses a so-called Robotic Agent that functions like a voice-activated personal assistant. Rear-view mirrors have been replaced with cameras - a good idea, considering the driver is placed in the center of three seats, and away from where conventional mirrors would be located.
The Pivo3 is a concept, and as such won't see production, but seeing that previous Pivo models helped to publicize Nissan's upcoming in-car technologies, we wouldn't be surprised if the Pivo3 will signal some future features from the Japanese marque.
Credit: Automobile Magazine (www.automobilemag.com)
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