One of the most engaging concepts at Geneva 2012 is arguably the Kia Track'ster (where does that Korean brand find all the orphan apostrophes?), which came to Europe from the brand's California Design Center, write Trish Whelan and Brian Byrne. You can see the soul of the Soul in part of its makeup, and with an AWD drivetrain managing 250hp of turbocharged power, it's shorter, lower and wider than the Soul.
Maybe one of the most beautiful concepts is the Inifiniti Emerg-E, a promise from Nissan's prestige brand to produce an advanced electric sports car. The twin electric motors punch it to 100km/h in four seconds, and when its range-extending petrol engine kicks in the rated CO2 emissions are down at the 55g/km mark.
Toyota's Diji concept at first looks menacing in a black beetle kind of way, but the blurb is all about a huggy feely connectivity that 'heralds a not too distant future where people, cars and society are linked'. Well ... huh? Still, there's something about changing the colours, and 'Toyota Friend' social networking: should Facebook worry?
On the other hand, also from Toyota, the FT-bh concept shows some design thoughts for a future hybrid small car, super-slippery in design and with either electro-assisted 1.0 petrol engine or a plug-in EV system. It was certainly more likeable than the Darth Vader Diji.
We have seen plenty of images already of Mazda's Takeri concept that shows how parts of the Mazda6 replacement will look like. But it was nice to see it in the metal, and certainly the Japanese carmaker with one of the best records for reliability has it in spades when it comes to nice styling. Now, if they could only market their cars as well as they do both those things...
Much as we love the Range Rover Evoque—selling in Ireland and across the globe in numbers that have strained supply availability—the topless concept shown at Geneva didn't really warm our cockles. A bit on the dumpy side for most people's taste, we'd have thought? Made the previously seen Defender concept beside it all the more desireable, though.
But the little Honda EV-Ster two seater sports car concept a couple of stands away is to drool over and hope that something in production from it isn't too far away. Well, in fact, there is—Honda has given the green light to a version, probably with a conventional or hybrid powertrain rather than the conceptual pure EV in the study.
And, of course, the NSX large sports car study will certainly bear a real car eventually, because there's both a tradition and a demand for it in such key markets as the US.
Nissan's Invitation Concept will definitely go into production, in the UK plant in Sunderland next year. Supermini sized, Invitation is a crossover small car that will use existing diesel and petrol engines along with light car weight to give the kind of frugal fuel-sipping necessary in these ever spiralling oil coast times.
And there are lots more concepts here. We'll bring you some more later in the day.
