Concept cars provide clues as to what the future might look like. Here are the 10 best from the 2016 Geneva motor show
This year’s Geneva motor show was surprisingly light on concept cars, with many manufacturers opting to reveal production models rather than weird and wonderful visions of the future. However, there were still a few crackers around if you knew where to look – here are our 10 favourite.
1. DS E-Tense :
Daft name, but a deeply cool car; the E-Tense is DS’s vision of an all-electric sports car. Think Audi R8 E-tron, but with a Gallic twist. 0-62 takes 4.5 seconds, with a range of around 200 miles. Will they build it? Probably not – but just think of the wonders it could work for the DS brand if they did.
2. Vauxhall GT Concept
Prize for the most mental doors at the show has to go to the Vauxhall GT Concept. This little thing is the kind of car motoring journalists sputter excitedly about, but nobody ends up buying. So, here comes some excited sputtering: powered by a 1.0-litre, 143bhp engine, it’s low weight and diminutive stature aims it firmly at the Mazda MX-5. Were they to put such a car into production, then, it’d probably be an absolute hoot to drive.
3. Mazda RX Vision
Yes, we’ve seen it before, but this is the first time the RX Vision has been exhibited in Europe. Dramatically long and low, this is the car Mazda would build to succeed the RX-7 and RX-8 sports cars – and yes, it would most likely have a rotary power unit.
4. Skoda Vision S
The production version of this mammoth SUV won’t have the twinkly, crystalline grilles and badge – or at least, let’s hope they won’t, because such bling is distinctly unbecoming of a Skoda. Otherwise, though, the Vision S bodes well for the Czech company’s big SUV.
5. Italdesign GTZero
From a sensible(ish) Skoda to a bonkers Italian GT. This one almost certainly won’t make production, looking as it does like a Gerry Anderson creation – and that’s something of a shame, as it looks blooming brilliant. Mad lights, scissor doors, impossible windows – this concept has it all.
6. Volkswagen T-Cross Breeze
Volkswagen’s answer to the Range Rover Evoque Convertible – sort of – the Breeze is based on VW’s T-Cross concept, which previews the company’s small, lifestyle-imbued SUV. The jury’s out on whether this one will get made, but if it does, expect zany paint colours and lots of lifestyle language.
7. Toyota Kikai
Another one we’ve seen before, but the Kikai is so bonkers it deserves a second look. The Terminator extra-like styling is intended to celebrate the car denuded of its bodywork, while the three-seat layout places the driver dead centre.
8. VW Budd-E
VW’s vision of a standalone electric car takes the form of a stubby small MPV with oodles of space inside and a 370-odd mile range. Beneath the skin, there’s a modular electric car architecture on which Volkswagen believes it can base other electric models in the future.
9. Sbarro Haze
No trip to Geneva would be complete without a contribution from wacky Swiss manufacturer Sbarro, and this one’s particularly interesting. Powered by an Audi 5-cylinder engine, the Haze is the product of the Sbarro design school, whose students took it from initial brief to working prototype in just 68 days.
10. Quant Quantino
Quant has been bringing its radical concepts to Geneva for a while now, and this year’s Quant F and Quantino were little changed from last year’s. They preview a new type of battery still in development which Quant’s parent company Nanoflowcell says could revolutionise the electric car. The jury’s out on whether their claims carry any weight, but the Quantino is certainly a punchy-looking little thing that’d work in its own right even with current, more conventional electric tech under the skin.
Geneva motor show (2016) : Top 10 concept cars
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