2009 Tokyo Auto Show: Toyota Upgrades FT-EV City Car Concept

Judging from the amount of copy they fed us in advance, Toyota is a whole lot prouder of the rear-wheel drive "Toyobaru" sports coupe it is showing at this month's 2009 Tokyo Auto Show than of the FT-EV II electric city car concept (above) that also will be there.

But an electric city concept there will be - based off the hot-selling toyota iQ micro-mini and an "upgrade" of the FT-EV city car concept that debuted in January at the Detroit Auto Show.

Toyota's not let much out about the new city EV, but what we can tell you is that  that it has a lithium-ion battery pack installed under the floor that can deliver about 56 miles on a single charge and a top speed of 62 miles an hour (that's a nice round 100 kilometers an hour in metrics.)

There are no brake, clutch or accelerator pedals - it's all operated by hand with the  levers on a futuristic steering wheel, although "control apparatus" might be a better way of describing it.

The reason for the lack of foot controls? Toyota has envisioned a day when radio signals, perhaps from cables embedded in the road, will guide cars and this equips the concept with an "auto mode" for those city commutes when you'd rather spend the time reading the morning paper.

We can also say that it seats four people despite an overall length of just 107 inches long, and those people would climb in through a pair of sliding doors (one on each side).

And that's about it -except that Toyota hopes to have a real battery-electric city car in the market by 2012.

As for that 'Toyobaru" that's stealing the little EV concept's thunder - it's the FT-86 (left), fruit of a collaboration between Toyota and Subaru, in which Toyota now holds a stake. It is intended to replace the MR 2 as Toyota's fun car, will use Subaru's 2.0-liter horizontally opposed, flat-four engine, reportedly handles like a dream and is due to hit the streets in late 2011. You can read more about it on Inside Line.

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John O'Dell October 6, 2009, 10:31 AM

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Auto Shows, Japan, Plug-ins and Electric, Subaru, Toyota

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2009 Tokyo Auto Show, EVs, Toyota, Toyota EV, Toyota FT-EV II