Nissan's IMx concept car is hella cool... and closer to hitting the road than you think
Nissan unveiled its latest concept car at the Tokyo Motor Show, and unlike most forward-looking designs trotted out at auto events, the automaker claims that the tech powering the vehicle isn't as far out in the future as you might expect.
The IMx concept is an all-electric, fully autonomous crossover vehicle, embracing the two biggest development trends currently sweeping the auto industry. Nissan SVP Daniele Schillaci said the systems in the IMx will be delivered by the automaker "in the next few years."
The car is built on "future" versions of Nissan's ProPILOT assisted-driving tech, which makes its debut in the 2018 Rogue this month, and its EV platform, which has already hit the roads with the Nissan Leaf.
Nissan says the IMx's dual electric motors enable all-wheel drive, 320 kW of power and 700 Nm of torque, giving the concept more appeal than just its sleek exterior. The battery is designed to provide a driving range of up to 373 miles per charge.
Nissan teased a future where the IMx can connect to local power grids to return electricity to the network, but didn't provide any details about how the wireless power transfer might work or how quickly the car would charge. That aspect of the design is presumably much more of a far-flung concept than its other features.
The IMx interior is built to compliment the vehicle's transition between driving and autonomous modes. The steering wheel retracts into the dashboard when its not in use, giving passengers more room to recline.
There's also an interactive OLED dashboard and instrument panel, which display external road conditions and give passengers full control over the vehicle's systems.
Nissan says the interior's open layout is based on traditional Japanese house design, featuring seats with silicon-material cushioning and 3D-printed frames.
As much as Nissan claims that the IMx is close to the future, the crossover is still a concept. That means that we might see some of the tech included on the roads sooner than later — but the full sum of its features are more likely further off, if they ever make their way into Nissan's cars at all.
Brett Williams is a Tech Reporter at Mashable. He writes about tech news, trends and other tangentially related topics with a particular interest in wearables and exercise tech. Prior to Mashable, he wrote for Inked Magazine and Thrillist. Brett's work has also appeared on Fusion and AskMen, to name a few. You can follow Brett on Twitter @bdwilliams910.
