Filed under: Concept Cars, Japan, Tokyo Motor Show, Suzuki
Tokyo Motor Show: Suzuki Pixy & SSC
The 2007 Tokyo Motor Show ended last week, but today we're cleaning out our closet of yet-to-be published posts from this biggest of biannual Japanese auto shows. 
PRESS RELEASE:
Exhibition summary of 40th Tokyo Motor Show 2007
Suzuki Sustainable Mobility (PIXY + SSC)
Suzuki will unveil a new people-focused vehicle concept at Tokyo called Sustainable Mobility.
It consists of a single seater low-speed transport pod called PIXY and a minicar-based mobility unit called the Suzuki Sharing Coach (SSC) which forms an automobile when paired with the PIXY.
PIXY and SSC together deliver personal, shared urban transportation in line with the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's Next Generation Vehicle and Fuel Initiative, aimed at realizing the world's most people-centred motorized society.
PIXY is a one person transport device based on the concept of 'friendly' mobility. Moving at low speeds on footpaths and inside buildings, it's enjoyably easy to operate, even for people unable to drive conventional cars.
The SSC is a minicar-based mobility unit, which can hold a maximum two PIXY units.
PIXY is not the only unit SSC can be coupled with. It can also be paired with a sports car unit called the SSF and with a marine unit called the SSJ, resulting in a new kind of personal mobility and sharing system.
There's more than a hint of Toyota's PM, i-Swing and i-REAL series about this concept. But where Toyota admits that the driver may occasionally want to get out of the pod, Suzuki sees no reason for such extravagant use of your legs when operating the PIXY. Leaving the city for a blast down the highway? Just drive your PIXY in to your SSC mothership. Want to go for a thrash though the mountains? Park up in your SSF sports-car unit. There's even a speed boat (SSJ) on the cards, not that you'd be able to smell the sea breeze. Both the PIXY and SSC appear to be hermatically sealed and were unbearably hot under the stage lights. Ideal transportation for a post nuclear war world perhaps?
PRESS RELEASE:
Exhibition summary of 40th Tokyo Motor Show 2007
Suzuki Sustainable Mobility (PIXY + SSC)
Suzuki will unveil a new people-focused vehicle concept at Tokyo called Sustainable Mobility.
It consists of a single seater low-speed transport pod called PIXY and a minicar-based mobility unit called the Suzuki Sharing Coach (SSC) which forms an automobile when paired with the PIXY.
PIXY and SSC together deliver personal, shared urban transportation in line with the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's Next Generation Vehicle and Fuel Initiative, aimed at realizing the world's most people-centred motorized society.
PIXY is a one person transport device based on the concept of 'friendly' mobility. Moving at low speeds on footpaths and inside buildings, it's enjoyably easy to operate, even for people unable to drive conventional cars.
The SSC is a minicar-based mobility unit, which can hold a maximum two PIXY units.
PIXY is not the only unit SSC can be coupled with. It can also be paired with a sports car unit called the SSF and with a marine unit called the SSJ, resulting in a new kind of personal mobility and sharing system.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Yggdrasilly 1:17PM (11/02/2007)
What nobody's pointed out is that Japan faces a massive graying of its population--in a few years a majority of Japanese will be old enough to require at least some assistance, and there won't be near enough caregivers around to provide them personal or home-based care.
So it seems that Japanese industry is looking at ways to expand the mobility and capability of the elderly as much as possible, to stretch the supply of caregiver labor as far as it can.
PIXY would allow a frail oldster to get around in the neighborhood and fulfill some daily needs without assistance. The interface between PIXY and SSC seems designed to address the problems found in getting wheelchair-bound people in and out of cars, busses and other road transportation. While PIXY may not be produced, the interface it defines may be useful in future Japanese passenger vehicles that will have to accomodate the chairbound elderly, without relying on someone to get them in and out.
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Jerk Face 1:32PM (11/02/2007)
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Whaaaaaat?
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