LEADERSHIP QUOTE OF THE DAY (23 May 2012): You gain STRENGTH| COURAGE AND CONFIDENCE by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do. - Eleanor Roosevelt
WHEELS
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The Fun Vii
The Fun-Vii, which stands for ‘vehicle interactive internet’, is a concept car with a bodyshell made of touch-screen panels that not only allow the driver to change the pattern on display but also connect the car to the dealership’s website for a check-up.
It even greets its driver with a message that flashes up on the door.
Toyota showed off the unique car ahead of the Tokyo Motor Show today, with company president Akio Toyoda saying: ‘A car must appeal to our emotions. If it’s not fun, it’s not a car.’
The car giant has no plans to put Fun-Vii into production just yet, but explained that it’s an example of the kinds of technologies that it could incorporate into designs in the future.
Two other electric Toyota concept cars have also been revealed.
The FT-EV III is a four-seater electric vehicle based on the Toyota iQ.
Equipped with a lithium-ion battery, it achieves an estimated cruising range of 104 kilometres on a fully charged battery.
Toyota is developing EV technology with the aim of launching a vehicle suitable for short-distance travel in 2012, when the plug-in market comes to the UK.
The FCV-R (Fuel Cell Vehicle – Reality & Revolution) concept, meanwhile, is a practical, family sized vehicle fuelled by hydrogen.
This concept model represents the next step towards the commercial launch of a Toyota fuel cell vehicle by 2015.
This should be able to reach 692 kilometres on one charge.