Nissan at the Geneva Motor Show
The 2006 Geneva Motor Show plays host to two completely different show cars from Nissan… but they share one common theme: accessibility. Whether it’s negotiating the crowded city or exploring the wild, Nissan’s cars of the future promise to SHIFT_access.
Yet the city-orientated Pivo and the go-anywhere Terranaut are linked by far more than the Nissan badges on their noses.
To the team of designers and planners who conceived it, both the metropolis and the most remote, unconquered areas of the globe are "fields for human adventures".
Although produced for two diametrically opposed habitats and physically at either extreme of car design boundaries, Pivo and Terranaut share some key elements: both, for example, have three seats and both feature rotating spherical ‘pods’ as a central part of their respective overall designs.
But, above all, both have been created to enhance mankind’s relationship with the world. The key idea for the planning and design team on both projects was: integration (in the environment, from the busy city, to the unexplored desert); seamless integration also in the daily life in terms of the optimised working space of Terranaut together with the ultra functional interior of Pivo. These extreme approaches are one way of exploring how to make the car interior a better place to be.
Crowded and polluted cities demand zero-emission vehicles that literally fit in to their surroundings. Pivo fulfils those requirements exactly thanks to its non-polluting electric power and its compact dimensions, which allow it to be threaded through the smallest gaps. And its remarkable rotating cabin – it swivels through a full 360 degrees – coupled with advanced drive-by-wire technology allows its user to drive in and out of parking slots without ever having to select reverse gear.
Terranaut, too, answers its design brief to the letter. Built for wild, often unfriendly environments, Terranaut has outstanding 4x4 capabilities to ensure it can go anywhere. Central to its role is the on-board laboratory housed in a rotating sphere to the rear of the vehicle where scientific workstations permit analysis of biological, geological and chemical samples in the field.
"Pivo and Terranaut embody everything Nissan is doing for the future. As well as showcasing many advanced technical solutions, both vehicles underline Nissan’s understanding of a changing world and the role the car will play in our lives in the years to come," said Shiro Nakamura, Senior Vice President Design, Nissan Motor Limited.
This approach at both ends of the cars line-up is exploring the whole diversity of consumer needs. In exploring these extremes, Nissan intends to better understand the lives of the people who buy its cars and that in turn will lead to better products in Nissan’s range.
Source: Automotoportal.com
