JAPAN is back! Top 20 CRAZIEST cars at the Tokyo motor show
Good day. I’m Paul. We’re at the 2025 Tokyo Motor Show. Sir, I’m in my car expert gear. We had a couple of live crosses this morning and I’ve been up very early. I’m going to run you through some of the exciting stuff coming to the automotive world. Some of the incredible concepts that are coming to STI finally making a return. Toyota, one of the biggest car brands in the world. I’m going to run you through the exciting stuff they have. They literally have an entire hall to themselves. They broke the internet with the Land Cruiser FJ. So, we’re going to get a closer look at that. Chinese brands are starting to infiltrate now into Japan, too. So, super exciting stuff. We’re going to get straight into it, and let me know what you think of the show in the comments section below. So, we’re going to kick off at the Mazda stand uh with the CX-5, and then I’m going to show you some really interesting stuff with bofuels and some concept cars that Mazda has coming as well. But CX-5, bestseller in Australia for Mazda. And given that Australia is Mazda’s biggest market globally, it is a very important car. And they’ve made some weird decisions with this. So, I’ll run through the design first. On the design front, it isn’t a huge departure from the existing CX-5, but it is enough of a departure to make it look different. We’ve been told by the designer that all of the panels have been touched on this. So, uh even though it appears similar, it is a completely different and new car on a bigger wheelbase as well, which is going to mean more room inside. Headlights have changed, too. So, they’ve moved that beam to the inside here. This is just a daytime running light. They’ve made some weird decisions on drivetrain. So you look at RAV 4 hybrid, one of the bestselling SUVs in Australia, and it’s a hybrid. The rest of the competitors in Australia are hybrids as well. Mazda is launching a brand new car with a carryover engine, which is just such a bizarre choice. They do have a hybrid coming, but it’s not going to be until 2027, and that to me just doesn’t make any sense. They’ll be integrating a hybrid drivetrain with their existing transmission. Their existing transmission isn’t very good uh in the CX60, 70, 80, 90. So, that’s going to need a big improvement to really pair nicely with that hybrid drivetrain. We don’t know a huge amount on the actual hybrid drivetrain itself, but we do know that it is coming. On the design front, again, uh a lot of piano black and and it concerns me on the sides here as well, cuz that stuff scratches easily. Scratches easily inside the cabin, let alone here on the outside where you’ve got high contact surfaces. So, uh put that to one side, though. The actual car has grown. And if you have a look here at the wheelbase, this is the measure between the front and rear wheels. They’ve extended that significantly and that means more room in the second row and it means now getting in and out is easier. You’re able to uh get the kids in and out easier. They really have thought about ergonomics and I’ll show you this uh with the door as well. Look at that aperture. It’s almost 90°. So, it means that when you are sort of getting in and out, you’ve got heaps of room to swing in and swing out. You don’t really have any obstructions there. Now, come around to the back with me. So, full LED tail lights. And then this is the first car to debut this new Mazda branding as well with individual letters. just gives it a bit of a a bit of a stylish vibe. I’ll show you inside the boot here. Uh this is another thing that they were quite chuffed about. If you do fold the second row down, uh you’ve got 190 cm of space here to lay down. So you’ve got plenty of room to actually sleep in the back if you want to if you’re ever relegated to the back of your car. And then the biggest change is the interior. Come around here, Sean. Check out that screen in the center. So Mazda has really gone to town on tech. They’ve gone big screens. is they’ve really integrated everything they can into this system, including Google uh Gemini, which is Google’s AI assistant. So, it means you’re going to be able to talk to the car and and ask it to do things, ask it questions. It’ll it’ll be able to respond uh over the internet with all of that sort of stuff. And they’ve kept a lot of the premium finishes inside the cabin here, too, which is what Mazda’s known for. Uh they really just put a lot of effort into making sure the cabin feels nice. Now, they are going to have an issue with pricing, though. If you have a look at 60, 70, 80, and 90, the CX cars, they’ve all massively gone up in price. And if they plan on doing the same here with a carryover engine, it could cause an issue for them. So, we’ll see how that goes. But pretty impressive here in terms of the design and what it looks like. Very keen for a drive. It will be coming to Australia next year. Now, come over here. I want to show you something else. So, Mazda has been talking uh at length a lot of times about trying to delay the EV transition as much as possible. They tried with the MX30 to have an electric car. That really was bit of a failure in Australia. But they’re hoping this is going to move everything away from electric cars. It is bofuels and they’re making this from algae that they find in the ocean. The concentration is 1,000 L of uh I guess ocean water can convert to about 1 liter of fuel and they can do this all over the world. And what they’re hoping is that they can produce this type of fuel on mass or uh privatize it so that you can actually sell this technology and extend the life of internal combustion cars that are already on the road. And it’ll mean that you don’t have to go down the path of uh electric cars if you don’t want to. This will just work in any engine that’s on sale today. The other system they’ve got as well is a carbon capture system. This basically will take about 20% of the emissions that come out of the car, capture them as carbon, which they hope you’ll be able to sell or exchange when you go and fuel your car at a petrol station. So, it’s an interesting setup and I think that it really shows you that Mazda is thinking about what the future looks like, not necessarily having to go down the path of electric cars. And come over here, have a look at this thing. So, this pintsized little car over here, it’s basically an AIdriven car. And what they’re hoping with this is that they’ll be able to sell it to young people. It kind of previews the next generation Mazda 2, but when you’re inside, it has all these AI functions that are able to read your mood, get a better understanding of how you’re feeling and what’s going on around you. And have a look at it. It is such a cool design. The interior really just shows you that Mazda is looking ahead to simplifying their cars and just making them uh, you know, future friendly with stuff like these mirrors over here. This is probably the the most exciting thing for me. This car basically debuts the carbon capture system, but it also debuts a plug-in hybrid drivetrain. So, over 500 horsepower and just look at that sleek styling. A lot of people laughed at Jaguar with their transition to fully electric and that car that uh has created a lot of controversy on the internet. But if you have a look at what Mazda’s doing here, you have a look at what Audi did with their concept car, Mercedes-Benz with their concept car, it seems these long bonnet sort of coupeshaped vehicles are the way of the future. But this is basically previewing new plug-in hybrid drivetrain for Mazda. It allows the car to drive over 100 km on electric alone. And then you have explosive performance as well with the uh electric drivetrain that pairs with a rotary as a range extender. And I keep talking about rotary. It’s like a neverending joke with Mazda. I do hope that this car will actually debut a rotary because people are yearning for that rotary sound to come back uh and whether Mazda can actually achieve it with this. We don’t know. The interior looks really cool as well. Very futuristic. And you know, we’re back in the age of awesome looking concept cars that hopefully one day will actually come to fruition. Now, we are at Toyota. There is a lot to get through the Toyota stand. I’m going to kick off here with the new RAV 4. So, we have actually driven this in Australia and done a slightly more detailed video, but I’m going to give you just highle overview here so you can get better understanding of what’s coming. This is probably the one I’m most excited about. It’s called the GR Sport. So, this is a plug-in hybrid. And while the regular RAV 4 range will be available both as a front and all-wheel drive uh hybrid, this is a plug-in hybrid. We drove this in the States, the previous generation of this. And if you do want to check that video out, click on the link up there. I was genuinely amazed at how quick it was, uh, how efficient it was, and just how well the plug-in hybrid drivetrain paired with this platform. So, this is a carryover platform, next generation RAV 4. While they have made some changes to the engines, the platform beneath the skin is the same. And it’s the same story sort of with the Hilux as well. So, Toyota saving a bit of cash here on R&D by just continuing these platforms as long as possible. But on the design front, enough has changed here to make it look different on the road. So, full LED headlights. You got these arrow elements here that are slightly different on each grade of this, but the GR Sport being the the sportiest looking of them all. Around the side here, you’ve got the charging port for uh the plug-in hybrid drivetrain. Also, a lot of piano black as well. I don’t know why they’re obsessed with doing piano black on the outsides of cars because it scratches really easily. Um I’ll run you through the battery specs and the engine specs in just a second. But if you have a look here, you still have stacks of room. But we had a look at the CX-5 just before and you can see with the CX-5 they’ve gone to the effort of making that door swing out wider. CX-5 has a bit more room inside as well than this. So I just fear with carryover platforms where they don’t really look far enough into the future to see what other brands are doing. They don’t really accommodate for things like this where your competitors are increasing the size of their cars. With a carryover platform you can’t really change the wheelbase. It is just the same as it always has been. Around here you’ve got a big old spoiler on the back here. Look at that. It looks like a a rally car effectively with the the air that sort of pumps through there. Full LED tail lights. And then I’ll crack this open here as well. So, you can have a little sticky in the boot. You got a battery under the second row there for the standard hybrid. But here with the plug-in hybrid, it sort of breaches into this section a little bit more because it is a much bigger battery. It’s not the end of the world. You still have a decent size boot with power outlet there for some V2L. Power outlet uh 1500 W. So, pretty reasonable there in terms of that capacity. There are some big changes to the infotainment system though. So Sean, if you go around that way, I’ll go this way. This infotainment system is a massive change. So debut is a new infotainment system called A Ring. So it’s a connected system with uh the ability to have uh intelligence connected through Google. So big display there. Doesn’t sit too high, so you still have great visibility down the road. Head-up display as well, digital display ahead of the driver. This is also going to debut new remote connectivity features. So, it means you’re able to connect into the car, track the car, send music to the car, do all those sorts of things. And then down the center stack here, it’s been simplified with the gear shifter here for the plug-in hybrid being this sort of knobbyby arrangement. Drive mode selectors off to the side and then this. So, basically opens both sides, but can also be detached as well if you do want to use this as a little tray table. Uh, not a bad setup. Now, turn to the drivetrains. We’re going to whip the phone out here. So, 2 and 1/2 L. They took photos over the 2 and 12 L hybrid drivetrain either front or all-wheel drive. Uh 143 kW of power. So it’s 20 kW of power down on the previous generation of this car which is a little bit disappointing. And again it just shows you with these carryover platforms if you’re not making changes to the mass and and all the other stuff associated with it. You are going to come at the compromise of uh engine capacity for emissions controls which is where they’ve got a D-tune. here on the plug-in hybrid 2 1/2 L 22.7 kWh battery 227 kW of power and the big difference here as well this will be available as a front-wheel drive and an all-wheel drive as well which is impressive Australian lineup will include GX GXL Edge XSSE cruiser and then topsp spec will be GR Sport so love the look of this very impressed with the way it’s styled let’s hope they don’t go too crazy with pricing which seems to be the thing these days they just keep jacking up prices So, uh, but anyway, first glance, this looks fantastic. Now, let’s head over and see the car that the show is going crazy about, the Land Cruiser FJ. This is the car that pretty much everyone is the most excited about. It is the Land Cruiser FJ. It’s a recreation of the FJ Cruiser, but ditches a V6 and instead now uses the wheezy engine out of the entry- level Hilux. So, 2.7 L naturally aspirated 4-cylinder petrol. This is very reminiscent of what Suzuki did with the Jimny. They’ve really just shrunk this from something like a Praoa, but still kept its off-road capability. This shares a platform with Hilux and Fortuna. So, it is off-road capable with a part-time four-wheel drive system, live axle at the rear, LED headlights. There’s actually two designs for this. I’m going to show you the other sort of more off-road focused design in a sec, but LED headlights there, LED fog lights, very rugged design with all of this plastic around the sides here. It really is made to go bush bashing and not being too concerned about how much damage you have. When I say wheezy, 120 kilowatts of power, so not exactly a great deal. Sean, crack that door open. I’ll show you what it looks like inside the cabin. When you think of a Jimny, you think of uh kind of a very cheap interior that isn’t very nice. This, on the other hand, is a big step forward in terms of the quality. You’ve got big screens there, so you’re not really held back on infotainment. It is small in here, but ultimately, you have plenty of room to do what you need to do. Uh you’ve got a rear diff lock button there as well and then the ability to switch between uh four high and four low. So it is a sort of decent looking setup. I’ll show you what it’s like in terms of rear leg room. So it is pretty tight. I think if you’re Japanese, it’s not too bad. But for actually, you know, it’s not too bad. It’s not the end of the world. I think if I had to sit back here, it wouldn’t be all that bad. I’m going to crack my phone open so I can give you some of the the key highlights and dimensions. So length of just over four or just under rather 4.6 6 m, width of just under 1,900 mil, and height of just under 2 m as well on a wheelbase of 2.58 m. So, not an enormous vehicle. Uh, it’s very short, which means it’s going to make it great for off-road driving, especially with that suspension setup. Live axle gives you just a bit more freedom there in terms of articulation and also means that they can carry on a lot of the technology that they have in vehicles like the Hilux. Let me show you the back. Spare tire on the back here and then you swing the tailgate open like this. This is such a cool looking car. Uh, plenty of boot space here as well. So, it just feels a bit bit more spacious than a Jimny. It is bigger than a Jimny, but it just feels a bit more usable and you don’t really have the compromises that you do in the Jimny. This feels like they’ve really thought about how this is going to be used. Now, I mentioned another design. Come up to the top of the stage here with me. So, this design up here is cool. And you can see up the top there a familiar name, ARB. They’ve got some accessories from ARB that are fitted to this vehicle. This one’s also got allterrain tires and a different headlight setup. So, they’ve done what they’ve done with the Praa here. They’ve got circle headlights. So, in my opinion, this looks significantly better than the other one. The other one looks a bit sort of chintzy, but this actually looks like a mini Prao with the way they’ve designed it. You got a snorkel up here as well, the ARB accessories on the roof there, rock sliders off to the side, and then uh car’s locked, but the interior is slightly different to that one, too. This is more of an entry- level spec with a smaller screen. Now I hear what you’re asking. When’s it coming to Australia, Paul? How much is it going to cost? Fortunately, at this stage, it’s not coming to Australia. The fund police are sort of ruling it out. Our envys in Australia, the emissions regulations that we have are preventing cool stuff from like this from coming because it doesn’t help Toyota’s case when it comes to selling vehicles. But anyway, sensational looking car and I do hope that it does arrive in Australia or someone imports it. Um, this, have a look at this. This is the new uh Corolla prototype. Now, obviously the Corolla won’t look like this, but this prototype signals the direction Toyota’s heading in in terms of design. Uh Corolla will launch with hybrid and also a fully electrified option. You can see this thing is enormous as well. And one of the things that they’ve debuted here off to the side there, you can see the screens. I’m going to show you another concept they have in a second on the new Hias where they’ve really lent into this screen technology exterior to the car. Gives you information on what’s going on inside the car. And I mean, it’s stuff that you can relay to other people. It could be here charging information or it could be saying that the car’s locked or unlocked. I don’t know. You’ve got a few different options there in terms of what is going to be displayed. The interior looks sensational, too. I think Toyota really needs to step up their interior game. We’re seeing with RAV 4 and hopefully with next generation Hilux that they just focus a bit more on quality like Mazda does, and it doesn’t feel as cheap inside. While the Corolla has traditionally been a cheap car, it has massively gone up in price. So, having a more premium interior is really going to help them justify some of those price increases. Just look at this design. It looks absolutely sensational. You know, these concept cars often aren’t very realistic in terms of the way that they look, but if you have a look at what they’ve done with FJ, they might end up rolling something like this out because it is is pretty special looking. Um, obviously not with 21in alloy wheels, but uh certainly that headlight design and just the way that it looks, I think has been absolutely nailed by Toyota. So, um, anyway, Ukarola there. I’m going to take you over to that van over there, which is an ambulance concept. So, let’s go have a look at that. Now, the High Ver car in Australia for tradies, but this is the High Ace concept. Basically moves them towards electric. And Dave is some really interesting stuff. So, this one here is an ambulance. You can see before I mentioned with the Corolla, the the use of these screens. So, this can display different information depending on which mode the car’s in. And then over here being an ambulance, it actually has a seat that’s able to uh pull people up back into the vehicle. So that will basically lift itself up. Screen inside there. This enormous screen up the front there. This is just a concept, but it does signal the direction that Toyota’s heading in in terms of their infotainment technology. And another screen up the back. And if you are following this, come around to the back with me, Sean. You can actually change what’s displayed here. So this particular car, ambulance, mobile, pharmacy, but if this was an emergency vehicle, you could actually have things displayed here so that when the vehicle is following, you can read information or perhaps it’s vision out the front so you can see what’s in front of the ambulance. Uh just a really cool setup. But they take it a little uh further there with this concept up the top. I’m going to squeeze around all these people. This is basically the tradey version. And the big benefit of these electric vehicles is the flat floor. So you can see this one here. They’ve managed to get a uh set of ladders in here. So, or a ladder in here, but because it’s a flat floor, you don’t really have any intrusions. You work the ladder in there. It goes all the way to the back, all the way up the front. Has a hardwearing surface as well because the battery is flat. And then here with the ambulance, too. You can swivel these seats around and just have all these storage options. I love the look into the future with this stuff. And I understand that the Hias is a commercial vehicle built at a cost, but I do hope they can integrate some of these ideas into the final production vehicle because, you know, it is just really cool what they can do when they put their mind to it. So fingers crossed Toyota manages that. Then they’ve got this thing over here which is and I’m butchering this name, the Kaio Bakco concept. So another electric sort of box looking van that’s autonomous uh used at airports and stuff like that. So Toyota has got a pretty comprehensive setup here. I am excited to see something a little sportier though. Let’s head over to Lexus. Now, I’m going to run you through the plane in just a second, but um this is the thing I’m most excited about. When I was at Goodwood earlier in the year, they had prototypes of this driving up the hill. This is effectively a spiritual successor to the LF8. It’s called the Sport Concept. Uh the one that they had at Goodwood definitely had V8 vibes, and it is rumored to have a twin turbo V8, also a fully electric version. Now, the electric version is interesting, too, because actually uh in some of the spy shots saw paddle shifters with gear selection. So I think this is going to be a platform that really deres uh from turbocharged V8 with probably a hybrid element to something that is fully electric as well. It looks absolutely sensational. Yes, this is just a concept, but the car that we saw driving up the hill looked very much like this. Maybe just with sort of normal size mirrors, but the design is just look at the back of it. You know, the LFA still today looks like a sensational vehicle. It sounds unreal. I just pray that they’ve just maintained some of that uh sort of specialness that the LFA had. The plane, this is a uh basically going to launch in Dubai next year. It is for uh moving people around like an Uber. 160 km or so of range. It’s fully electric and it’s designed to give you transport between small cities. I don’t know how well it’s going to work with 160k’s range. It doesn’t make any sense to me on on a plane like that, but there are redundancies in place if it runs out of batteries. It’s able to glide. Uh, so they thought about that stuff, but just a weird one for Toyota to get involved in. Look at this. The Lexus LS concept. Kind of reminds me of the Is it the Johnny cab on Total Recall? Uh, look at it. It’s opened up. It’s kind of just showing the future of what a people mover could look like. Look at all that wood grain. Absolutely stunning. Screens ahead of the driver there, too. This is one of the cool things about the Tokyo Motor Show that we don’t really see at other motor shows anymore, and that is the age of the concept car. Something that is entirely radical, and while it may not enter production, they will use design ideas from this in future vehicles. It is um it is pretty impressive. We’re going to sneak around here now. Try not to interrupt anyone else. Zip through here. Another concept vehicle from Lexus as well. Have a look at this. So, basically LS coupé concept. uh just shows you again the direction they want to head in with luxury and Lexus kind of was the cousin of Toyota that that aimed to make things a little bit more special. But here it appears that Lexus is really taking it one step further by just making everything as luxurious as possible. You can see even here with the uh the interior really is just all about the driver over there. You’ve got screens in the second row as well. It is an absolutely stunning looking vehicle. Have a look at those wheels too. Just such cool stuff. And then the last thing here at the Lexus stand is this little autonomous pod. So it’s a single person thing. You got room there for your for your glasses. So you can have a sip of water while it’s zipping around the place. It’s kind of like the little uh concept that Toyota had for kids. This is maybe just for for grown-up kids that want to zip around the place. It’s cool that they’re thinking about this. And while it might be a little unrealistic, I’m glad someone’s actually doing something about it. Now before we get out of Toyota world, we’re going to go check out Century as well, which we don’t get in Australia, but uh some incredible looking machines over there. Look at this. This is the Century Coupé concept. You know what, Japan? It’s such a small country, like in the size of things, but big in terms of population, and big in terms of their love for cars, manufacturing, and it’s why they still do stuff like this. Uh, it’s basically a high- riding uh they’re calling a four-door luxury vehicle, styled like a coupe. We don’t know yet which engine they want to fit to this, but it’s rumored to be a plug-in hybrid, either V6 or V8. Now, if they do a V8 for the I guess the rebirth of the LFA, there is a chance they’ll whack that in here, which would be very exciting. Um, come around and just have a pier in here with me as well. It really just has these incredible proportions. It kind of looks like a like a Rolls-Royce. Uh, I don’t know, like a ghost twodoor ghost. It really is just a an interesting setup and it is absolutely stunning. Again, these are concept cars. If you have a look at the the standard Century vehicles, they look a little bit more sedate and I’ll show you those in a second. But it is exciting that Toyota really is looking to to spend money on this type of thing because these are high margin. They want to take on brands like Rolls-Royce with luxury vehicles. They know how to do drivetrains. So, might happen one day. Um, have a look at this over here. We’re going to duck around to this side. This is the Century Sedan, the GRMN version. So, being uh GRMN, it is sporty. So, you’ve got these really cool looking wheels there. A big old set of brakes as well. And have a look at all this uh sort of carbon down the bottom there too and around the the grill area. It is a cool looking setup. And then the GR badge uh is sort of black and white there too. This is very gangster. I think if this was in black with murdered out windows, it would look uh seriously impressive. And likewise over there with the Century SUV. This is the tailorade version. So, it’s a bespoke version uh of the standard SUV. Uh it was tailor made though. So all of the interior, all of the modifications on the outside of things that a customer can select and modify for themselves. You can even see here as well with this section that we’re in, it’s very detached from Toyota. Toyota’s all the sort of standard consumer stuff, whereas this is very much a uh a luxury portion of it. Uh, in terms of the engines over here, we’re talking about a 3.5 L V6 plug-in hybrid for the SUV and over here a 5 L V8 hybrid for the Century sedan, which is uh very impressive. Hopefully sounds good as well. I haven’t heard one of these going, but um that has been the Toyota and Lexus stance. It is uh quite remarkable to see how far these guys are going with everything and just how much effort they’re putting into maintaining brands like this and just forging ahead even if Japan is the main market for these things. So anyway, let’s move on. We’ll go see what the rest of the show has to offer. [Music] Now we are at Mitsubishi and before I run you through some of this stuff here, oh actually I was given this card as well. She’s just a scratch in the middle. Very nice. It’s like a sniffy card. Um when you look at Japanese brands, Mitsubishi is one that to me is struggling the most at the moment. They launched Triton which was bit of a flop in terms of sales and in terms of you know the vehicle itself and the technology. And you look at the stand, there really isn’t a huge amount going on here. Toyota has kind of knocked it out of the park with things that are happening. Uh, you know, Nissen is kind of doing okay as well, but they’ve got Univar coming, Patrol as well. So, they’ve got momentum. These guys just don’t seem to have any momentum at all. And this uh elevance concept here is kind of a a signal towards the Pajarro and potentially a revival. If you look to Australia at the moment, Pajaro Sport was axed because it didn’t meet certain safety criteria. So, this could be the revival of the the big full-size Pajgerro plug-in hybrid drivetrain. They haven’t really given us too many details on it, but quad motor setup, uh, bigger battery as well. They have a lot of experience with stuff like Outlander plug-in hybrid, so it should mean that it is actually pretty decent once they do launch it. But, I don’t know, they just need a bit of a kick in the pants. This is kind of cool. Uh, this one a uh this one, the Asian Rally. Let me just double check the exact name of this. So, the 2025 Asia Cross Country Rally. It’s a Triton rally car. Have a look at it. Why would you not release a Triton that looks like that in Australia? Because I’d buy that. It looks absolutely unreal. So, look, hopefully they can uh get a bit more momentum and things can actually happen, but it is sort of looking a little bit bleak here at Mitsubishi. So, uh let’s head over to Niss. Have a look at this. It is very different to a traditional motor show stand. It’s like all white. You know, you’re not not meant to have white carpet at home cuz it gets dirty easily, but it’s Japan, so they’ll keep it all clean. Um, Nissan’s debuted the new LGR. Now, the LGR we don’t get in Australia, but it is launching in Japan in fiscal year 26. Really cool looking thing. It looks just very futuristic, sort of Robocop vibes. Uh, this is fourth generation of this, but also uses the third generation of Nissan’s e- power system. And when I sort of talk about Mitsubishi over there, there is a lot more happening here at at Nissen at the moment. And this is a great example of that. I think they’ve really nailed the design on this type of vehicle. just needs to look futuristic and interesting and uh it definitely achieves that. So, fortunately, we don’t get it in Australia. I don’t think it’ll be coming to Australia either, but if it did, I reckon they’d sell a few of them. Um Patrol, we’ve already seen Patrol. We went to the reveal in the Middle East, but they’ve announced that patrol is launching in Japan. Now, you might think to yourself, that’s weird. They build it here. Why would you not have it on the roads? But, uh it just wasn’t available here. So, they’ve now announced that it is going to be available for sale in Japan, given the G-Class is one of the most popular uh cars per capita here in Japan. Maybe it’ll do well. You never know. Um, look at this X-Trail over here. We’re going to zip around some of these people. Um, this looks fantastic. So, this is the Rock Creek version. So, red highlights down the front there. Red logo there, too. And then you’ve got Rock Creek over on the side here with a little bit of stuff there, too. kind of looks like the the Entre version of the Navara that we uh we had that has those sort of little little highlights and bits and pieces. Um X-ray still a fantastic vehicle in Australia. They’ve dropped the price recently to make the e- power more affordable and I think this is a good example of what they can do with a bit of styling. Ara now we just tested area but it now has a facelift only a minor facelift but vehicle to load capability now as well. Car was okay but in topsp spec I wasn’t a huge fan of it. If you do want to check out our review of that, there is a video you can click on up there. Um, around here is the new Leaf. Almost an 80 kWh battery in this. And they’re also claiming a driving range of over 700 km on the W LTC cycle. Pretty smart looking thing. So, you can see inside the cabin there. Got similar infotainment setup to the area. Also de uh some new connectivity options and looks pretty decent. I don’t know about this color, but I just like the design. sort of has more SUV proportions and just looks a bit sparter and less dowbdy than the last generation of the Leaf. So, fair bit going on here at Nissen. Uh, very impressed with that. Let’s uh head over to the other side now. Break from production cars for a second. Uh, this caught my eye because I need this in my life and Sean is suggesting that we use it as a camera car, which I wouldn’t object to. The specs are ridiculous. So, this is called the Terry X 5 H2 Deluxe. talking about a 1,00 C engine, 186 kW of power, and it weighs just 1,00 kilos. Sean, you go around. Actually, before we show you the inside, have a look at this suspension. This is ridiculous. So, live valve. This is similar to what they have fitted to the F-150 Raptor. Uh, incredible travel there on that coil spring. It is just such an unreal looking machine. Sean, you go in that side. I’ll crack this door open over here. This is fantastic. So, you’ve got a screen there ahead of the driver, an infotainment system in the center, this tiny little steering wheel there, handlebars to hold onto in your Kawasaki side by side, uh, roll cage up here. This thing is fantastic. Look at this racing harness as well. I definitely need one of these in my life. Um, come around to the back of it. So, you can see nestled under there is, uh, the engine just right under there. You got the exhaust system there. Even more suspension. And then have a look at this clearance there. That is some absolute wheel articulation. And then it’s a it’s a dual cabute as well, so you can pop your tools and stuff over here, too. Now, how much is it going to set you back? Well, uh little over $40,000, which I think is a bargain for what you’re getting. It is so bloody cool. Honda time. I’ve been excited for this. I’m going to run you through the concepts up there. They look pretty incredible as well. But Prelude, this is the production version of the car. Uh we’re actually going to be driving this shortly at a track event. So, when that story goes live, there will be a link in the description below. But I’ll give you the high level. So Prelude, when I was a teenager, it was one of the cars to get. If it wasn’t a Nissen, you were getting a Prelude to zip around in. You could modify them. You can do whatever you wanted to them. So they’ve revived the name here, but they’ve kind of gone down a different path. So it uses a 2 L naturally aspirated uh twin motor hybrid system, 150 kW of power, 300 new m of torque. So not exactly a huge amount of power and torque, but it’s a car that doesn’t really weigh much at all. And that’s all mated to an 8-speed uh automatic transmission and Civic Type R derived suspension. I think most exciting for me though is just the design. It looks sensational. The front looks great. The back looks really good as well. I’ll show you the inside. Sean, if you duck around that side, I’ll uh just see if I can crack this open. Sorry. Okay. So, uh have a look at this. Hondas just in general, the interiors I’m a big fan of. I love uh here with the the air grades. Just something as simple as that how they’re perforated. A simple infotainment system that’s not too over the top screen ahead of the driver. And you can see here uh pretty basic in terms of your controls. So you park neutral drive, you’ve got a sport plus button, then paddle shifters as well. But it is just a nice looking car both inside and out. And I’m excited to see how it does in Australia when it finally does arrive next year. And I don’t know, it could be something that really uh you know gives Honda the kick in the pants that it needs cuz it has been just a little bit stale in Australia. So we’ll see how that goes. Um I’ll have a look at the back and I’ll show you some of these concept cars as well. So have a look at the back. This is a a beautiful sleek design with that LED that runs all the way along the the rear Prelude lettering just there. So very schmick looking thing. Now these concept cars, let’s weave our way through here. Okay, so these are all the Zero Series EVs. So Honda is moving into electric vehicles and uh this is how they’re doing it. We’ve got three different variants here. Look at this. So this is the Honda Zero Saloon. It looks unreal. It kind of looks like a gayard at the front there. See how it’s got the the sort of chiseled lights? Kind of also looks like the car in uh Back to the Future 2 as well. It is just such a cool looking pig. So, um some specs on on this stuff. Uh futuristic lowslung flagship sedan concept. Uh first shown at CES, so we have seen this before, but seeing it here in flesh is cool. Some composite materials down the bottom there and on the wheels as well. This is probably the more relevant one though, the Honda 0 Alpha. Uh so Honda Zero Alpha is kind of a competitor to Tesla Model Y. Again, fantastic looking car that just the design proportions. It’s simple but really looks different to everything else on the road. It’s not generic or derivative with uh a lot of the Chinese market cars, a lot of them just look the same. Whereas this has just a completely different proportion, different profile. We don’t know a huge amount of details. Hopefully uh this will be coming to Australia. Uh and if it does, it will again just give Honda a little bit of revival, just something a bit more interesting than what they currently have uh on show. It’ll be launching globally in 2026. And then rounding out this Zero Series is the Honda Zero SUV, so bigger version of the Alpha. Uh similar sort of story though, it is going to be fully electrified. And again, just something that looks a little bit different. Um now, something that also looks a little bit different that is coming to Australia. Honda has just announced that they’re bringing this tiny little electric car as well. Come and have a look at it. Have a look at the Honda Super 1. So, this is coming to Australia next year. We don’t know pricing yet or a great deal of detail, but it looks so cool. So, city-sized uh electric vehicle. For this to work, it’s going to need to be under sort of $30,000 realistically. Uh big expensive uh small electric cars just do not fire whatsoever. But, uh hopefully they do the right thing here and they make sure that it does work. It’s got a boost mode. Uh, and then they also have the N1E production model, which is, uh, a Japanese market electric K car, 47 kW motor, 30 kWh battery. Nice and cute. But, um, yeah, what a fantastic looking little thing. I’m excited to drive this when it finally gets to Australia. And if we whip around here, there’s a rocket. Have a look at this. I love that. So, this is a sustainable rocket, and it’s a prototype that actually went up and came back down. You can actually see all the wear marks on it. Got a video here in the background that’s playing with with it in action. We’ll try and overlay some footage of it. But so cool to see an actual rocket here at a motor show. And then I don’t want to walk in their shop. Um this is the last thing that I found interesting. Uh Japanese brands are really still wanting to forge ahead with hydrogen vehicles. So this is the CRV EFC and they’ve got a cutaway here of the uh the fuel stack that powers this vehicle. So proportions are basically the exact same as a regular CRV, but if you come down here, you can actually see the diagram of where these tanks sit. So in the boot there and under the the second row, and then it creates electricity through the the hydrogen fuel stack that then powers and electric systems. Will it ever come to fruition? I don’t know. Uh commercial vehicles seem to be more the application for uh fuel cells like this. But it is one of the things that if it does take off for commercial, there is scope then for it to work for uh regular family vehicles like this because it’s quick to fill. You’ve got decent driving range and hydrogen in these applications are now very safe as well. So, uh pretty exciting here at the Hondatown. I think this is one of the more interesting stands at the show. It has been absolutely chockers here as well. So, we’ve only finally just been able to get access to this. Uh let’s go to Subaru where they’re cooking up some pretty awesome stuff as well. Now, time to talk Subaru. Have a look at this. The Outback. It has grown massively. So, Outback used to be kind of just station wagon. It’s now another SUV, which is a bit confusing because it it appears to be bigger than the the Forester, which makes no sense. But anyway, this here is the Wilderness prototype. Now, this is exciting because while the Outback was kind of semi-capable off-road, this takes it to another level entirely. Ground clearance of over 240 mil, got this sort of rugged design to it. You’ve got BFG Goodridge KO2 tires, so really meaty all-terrain tire. Accessories on the roof there. And Sean, if you whip around inside, I’ll show you what the inside looks like. This is also a big step forward in terms of technology. So, massive screen over here, screen ahead of the driver as well. And then colored highlights throughout the cabin with this soft touch material. Really is just a a cool looking car on the outside and and it has grown immensely. And I’m curious to see if you’re an Outback owner or a previous Outback owner who bought it because of a large boot. What do you think about it now as as an SUV? Come around to the back with And I’ll show you what that looks like with a litany of accessories as well, but you’ve got a whole roof rack system there. You’ve got water storage on the side. Uh and then the bike rack set up at the rear here as well. 2.4 L turbocharged boxer engine for this one. Then there’s this, which is the uh Forester Wilderness. So, similar concept there. Different set of allterrains, but lifted. You’ve got different coil springs as well, but this one is naturally aspirated. It doesn’t get the hybrid drivetrain either. So, it’s going to be a little bit of a slug and won’t be ideal for off-road driving. Uh, both of these come with a CVT as well. So, one of those gearboxes that can be a little bit limited when it comes to off-road, but love the matte finish here, the wilderness badges. It’s kind of like Jeep’s trail rated badge system. Uh, but yeah, nice and rugged looking thing. Let’s have a look at some of these exciting concepts they’ve got on the stage as well. Now, two of the STI concepts here. Uh, kicks off with this. This looks sensational. It is fully electric. It’s called the performance e STI concept. So, it’s Subaru’s first uh all electric STI concept. I love these highlights. You know, STI for Subaru is a name plate that has so much heritage and this looks sensational. So, four-door setup, incredible arrow, and you know, being an electric car, yes, it’s probably fast in a straight line and all that kind of stuff. They haven’t really revealed any power or battery figures, but as a design, it looks sensational. And I think they’ve uh they’ve completely nailed, you know, what a STI performance car should look like. So, pretty excited for that. Um, have a look at this over here. So, I just want to make sure I get the details right on this. So, this is a 1983 Subaru GL family Husta. Uh, it is uh famously driven by Travis Pastana. Uh, it’s not a production or concept car, but a showpiece sort of demonstrating what um what they can come up with. And if you’ve seen this in action, we’ll try and overlay some footage without getting copyright strikes. All of these bits pop up while the car is driving. It’s got a huge aeros scoop uh on the roof there. Just looks absolutely sensational. Uh now, let’s go down here to this other performance concept for STI. This one thankfully is internal combustion. Uh now, this just so I can make sure I get this right as well, is the performance B STI concept. Look at the size of that wing. It is absolutely enormous. Big exhaust pipes at the back. Uh big old set of sticky tires there as well. It’s based on the internal combustion WRX uh turbocharged. But the important thing here, symmetrical allwheel drive, and it could signal a return of the STI name plate. Look at that. Look at the seats inside as well. Uh there really isn’t a great deal of detail here on power and torque, but big brakes, performanceoriented. Uh hopefully this will be the future WRXSTI and kind of get some revival back into the Subaru brand thankfully as well has a manual transmission so we’re not going to be lumped with a CVT or anything silly like that kind of is just returning Subaru to what they’re good at. Um speaking of stuff that they’re good at and not good at such as the electric car they sell uh is this up here. So it’s basically an electric version of uh the Outback. It’s called the Trail Seeker prototype. fully electric uh crossover version of the Outback. 280 kW of power from dual motors. So, one on the front axle, one on the rear axle. Look, I mean, look at the Sultterra. It’s just not an amazing car. Not great driving range. It’s not really all that interesting to drive either. Now, I’ll show you what the interior looks like. I’ll crack this open. Sean, stick your head in there. So, same steering wheel as the Sulttera, which means you won’t be able to see the screen ahead of the driver. Uh big infotainment screen in the center there. I don’t know if there’s a market for, you know, adventure electric vehicles uh off-road, but happy to be proven wrong. Let me know what you reckon in the comments section below. Are you Subaru buyer? Would you buy an electric Subaru to drive off-road or do you prefer stuff like these wilderness concepts that are internal combustion and you know that thing over there, which is very much internal combustion. So, let me know your thoughts down there. Okay, so we’re wrapping up at BYD, and I know this is a weird one, a Chinese car company in Japan, and it’s where I wanted to finish because I think it’s curious. Uh, if you look at the Chinese, every market they’ve gone into, they kind of get a foothold, they then attack with lower prices and really take over the market. Given that Japan has a huge domestic manufacturing presence, same as in the States where they’ve blocked entry of Chinese cars, it is interesting to see how this works. And basically what I’ve been told is the BYDs come in with fully electric cars, which is something that Japanese manufacturers are struggling with at the moment. So they’re filling that niche of people that want it. But then uh part of the other reason a lot of people won’t come to the Japanese market with such a big foothold is K cars. They’re expensive to produce and you can only really sell them in Japan. Well, have a look up the back there. They’ve got their own little K car uh vehicle that’s being produced as well. So it is interesting. I’ll be curious to see how this goes for them. And I think Japanese manufacturers will be watching brands like BYD very very closely because you don’t want them getting that foothold. Uh but yeah, it’ll be interesting. Anyway, what are my thoughts on Tokyo Mobility Show uh for this year? Last time I was here, uh I was literally down the end there with Nissen having a look at cars like the GTR concept and and other Nissan products that they had and the proliferation of cars that were here. This is massively contracted. uh they’re really, you know, compared to the Shanghai Motor Show, this is very small. And I don’t know, it’s a little bit surprising to me. I think that uh it feels like the Japanese market has come off the boil a little bit. When you look at brands like Subaru, it’s just concepts on their stand. There really isn’t anything there that’s production ready. And it just seems weird that they’re not willing to commit to a lot of this stuff. Even with Toyota as well, they are definitely doing more now, but carryover platforms just seems like they’re rolling the arm over in a lot of ways. So, it’ll be interesting to see what happens with Japanese manufacturing over the next 5 or 10 years and what happens with Chinese manufacturing over the same time. So, let me know what you reckon about uh the Tokyo Mobility Show. Do you like the cars here? What was your favorite? I’m keen for your feedback. Let me know in the comments section below. I had a very early start this morning doing live crosses and stuff, so I think I need to go get some sleep. And thank you again for watching and until next time, take it
Japan feels like it has finally returned with some exciting and crazy new concepts and production cars at the 2025 Tokyo Mobility Show. Paul Maric takes you on a comprehensive tour of the most exciting concepts and new car models at the Tokyo motor show.
Toyota RAV4 Prime video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNwkHje5P8g&t=47s&pp=ygUUY2FyZXhwZXJ0IHJhdjQgcHJpbWU%3D
Nissan Ariya video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYHHLxzw9j4&pp=ygUPY2FyZXhwZXJ0IGFyaXlh
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Mazda: 00:36
Toyota RAV4: 06:43
Toyota FJ Land Cruiser: 11:00
Toyota HiAce Concept: 15:59
Lexus: 18:00
Century: 21:17
Mitsubishi: 24:04
Nissan: 25:38
Kawasaki SxS: 28:16
Honda: 29:35
Subaru: 35:10
Verdict: 40:09
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