With the i8 hybrid sports car pulled out of the market and the i3 hatchback overlooked by global buyers, BMW has never been a key player in the electrified car arena. Now, they aim to change the status quo with their latest flagship electric SUV, the BMW iX, revealed in its “series production development phase,” meaning it’s still a concept.
Sony has always been a familiar brand for all of us. Be it the Walkman, Bravia TVs, Playstations, (former) Vaio laptops or their mobile phones, most of us have had a taste of what the tech giant is capable of at some point in their life. But, as the automotive industry is growing towards a certain electric future, the car is turning into more of a gadget than a mechanical powerhouse. The Japanese company has taken notice of this shift and revealed the Sony Vision-S Concept Car at this year’s CES tech show earlier this month.
Nissan Leaf has been one of the vehicles that pioneered the electric car mass market. Launched almost a decade ago, the Leaf has been synonymous with affordable electric mobility, in the same vein as the Toyota Prius has been to hybrids. But the Leaf was considered to be uninspiring to drive, despite being futuristic. Now though, Nissan lifted the covers off a different version of Leaf, which is nothing like the existing ones.
After years of having an electric car range limited to the Leaf hatchback and an electric NV200 van, Nissan has unveiled the Ariya concept, a near-production electric SUV that’s going to rock the mid-priced EV segment.
Ever since the Maybach brand was phased out in 2013, Bentley and Rolls-Royce have had no worthy adversary from the house of Benz. Though the recently-revived Mercedes-Maybach brand came up with ultra-posh versions of the normal Mercedes-Benz models, they are just not as prestigious as the Rolls-Royce luxury barges. Now though, it seems that Maybach is attempting to take on the SUV models from the British stalwarts. A early look is offered by the Vision Mercedes-Maybach Ultimate Luxury concept, and it is astonishingly gaudy.
With distant hopes of sinking its claw right into the Tesla Model X, Jaguar revealed an all-electric SUV concept based on its latest offering, the F-Pace. The new electric concept SUV will be called the I-Pace. The I-Pace marks the Indian-owned British carmaker’s move to compete in the green-car category, considering they don’t even have hybrids yet.
Hyundai announced last month that their “Genesis” nameplate will become a stand-alone luxury brand, and it looks like the G90 will be their first model.
The Tokyo Auto Salon always features the quirkiest concepts, but Honda has toned down the fun this year for the 2009 auto show, showing only modified versions of their existing cars.