The Tokyo Motor Show returns after a four-year hiatus, but it’s now known as the Japan Mobility Show. For the 2023 edition, which kicked off on October 25, the entire Top Gear Philippines team flew to Tokyo to check out what car brands have in store for us in the future—new production models, concept cars, mobility solutions, you name it. Click play on the video above for our roundup.
Chapters:
0:35 Mitsubishi
3:40 Mazda
6:15 BMW
7:15 Toyota
10:25 Honda
13:25 Suzuki
17:31 Nissan
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Chapters:
0:35 Mitsubishi
3:40 Mazda
6:15 BMW
7:15 Toyota
10:25 Honda
13:25 Suzuki
17:31 Nissan
Dig cars?
Read more about cars and motoring here: http://www.topgear.com.ph
Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TopGearPH
Tweet us: http://www.twitter.com/TopGearPH
Follow us on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/TopGearPH
Join us on Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@topgearph
#topgearph
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MotorTranscript
00:00 Ohayo Gozaimasu everybody! We are in Japan for the Japan Mobility Show. We are here at Tokyo
00:06 Big Sai today. The entire Top Gear Philippines team is here this year, each one of us representing a
00:11 different brand. Now we're going to give you a tour of the inside. There are a lot of things to
00:15 see this year. Now it's called the Mobility Show because it's not just about cars. It's about
00:20 four-wheelers, two-wheelers, mobility devices, just about anything that relates to mobility.
00:24 It's going to be a fun show this year. It's been a while since we've been here. I'm actually a
00:28 first-timer. Most of us are first-timers here and can't wait to see what's inside. Let's go!
00:33 To kick things off, we are at the Mitsubishi booth and the first thing that greets you is
00:38 this, the Mitsubishi Triton AX-CR Rally Truck. Now this is not just some display. This is not
00:45 just some random Triton that's been wrapped. This is the real deal and the actual one that competed
00:50 during the TOUGH Rally. And the thing you should know about this is it was only months before the
00:55 actual race when this was launched. So Mitsubishi had a relatively limited development time but
01:00 despite that, they still finished the rally in third place. And it also proved its reliability
01:06 along the way for about 2,000 kilometers. So that's insane for a fresh production model.
01:11 But supporting it is the van over there. Now that is the Mitsubishi Delica D5 support car.
01:20 Now its main role was basically it just parks alongside the stages and that's where the rally
01:27 engineers ride to monitor the reliability and the parts of the Strada Rally Truck. So
01:33 without this one, maybe it wouldn't even have finished. So very vital role that it performed.
01:39 And it looks cool too. Now this right here of course is the Mitsubishi Triton, formerly known
01:45 as the Strada in the Philippines. Now you might be thinking, okay what is the Triton doing in Japan?
01:50 Well after 12 years of not being in the market, Mitsubishi returns to the Japanese pickup market
01:56 with the all-new model. And that's a very important move because one of its main rivals has had a
02:02 monopoly in the Japanese pickup market. And it's none other than the ever so dominant Toyota Hilux.
02:09 But with the Triton coming in, the Hilux's dominance is under threat and its main goal
02:14 is to steer you away from that Toyota showroom. Moving on to the one right here. Now this is
02:21 the EK Cross EV. Now it looks like a humble K car but it's actually very significant because this
02:28 is actually Japan's car of the year. Now the reason for that, well the judges simply loved
02:34 its simplicity and its engineering. And it also got a pretty good range out of that small battery
02:40 pack. So big win for Mitsubishi here. Okay so now that the crowd has thinned a little bit,
02:47 let's go take a look at the DX concept. If you're probably wondering, is this the next generation
02:52 Delica? Well sort of because Kato-san himself of Mitsubishi Motors said that this is essentially
03:00 the blueprint for the next generation model. And fingers crossed it will be introduced in
03:05 left-hand drive markets. And who's a left-hand drive market? Us. So we're hoping that you know
03:12 given the popularity of the Delica even in markets where it's not sold, we're really counting on
03:19 Kato-san and of course Hara-san from Mitsubishi Motors Philippines to bring it into the Philippines
03:25 once it reaches production. But it is interesting to note that Mitsubishi has an MPV that will
03:30 release sometime in 2025 or 2026. So that might be the production version of that to watch the space.
03:38 Now over at the Mazda booth, they're only featuring one model family. But it's a good one because it's
03:44 none other than the MX-5. Now on display here proudly is the first generation model that came
03:50 out in 1989. Now this was a very significant step for Mazda because at the time roadsters were simply
03:57 not profitable. But Mazda proved everyone wrong that you can sell a sports car and sell it in the
04:04 millions. And this car basically just launched a whole other copycats but it's never been copied
04:10 ever since. And among all its competitors, they're all gone. Only the MX-5 remains. That's how strong
04:17 the MX-5 name is. Now moving on to the next part of the booth is the 2024 MX-5. It's difficult to
04:26 believe that this car came out almost 10 years ago. And the fact that it still looks fresh and
04:31 it still looks new is saying a lot about the design. Now there is going to be a new MX-5
04:37 on the way and that is what we're going to take a look at next with the SP concept.
04:44 This ladies and gentlemen is the future of the MX-5. Now for now Mazda calls it the iconic SP
04:52 concept but we're not fooling anyone. It's really going to be the next MX-5 at least in hard top
04:58 form. Now true to the MX-5 ethos, it's still small, it's still compact, presumably lightweight as well
05:05 and very very stylish. Because again we're in a world of SUVs, crossovers and etc. But here's this
05:13 plucky little manufacturer from Hiroshima that still hangs on to the joy of driving. And after
05:19 all Mazda says they are a company that wants to make cars for the future that people will also
05:26 enjoy. But there's another MX-5 that caught our attention and yes the iconic SP looks fabulous
05:33 but it's this one. Now I'm gonna go closer for scale and I finally found a car that's about my
05:41 size. Now this is sort of the MX-5 for kids and as they say start them young. So if you have any kids
05:50 you know they could get one of these. Unfortunately though it is not for sale and sort of a one-off
05:55 thing that Mazda did. Truth be told Mazda could have saved its money and not display this at all
05:59 but this is Mazda we're talking about. They have their own way and they think independently and
06:05 the result is well stuff like this and the iconic SP. Now of course the Japan Mobility Show isn't
06:14 all about Japanese manufacturers. There are a couple of foreign ones too such as BMW. Now over
06:20 at the BMW booth there is the Vision Neue Klasse which is sort of a 3-series for the reimagined
06:28 electric era. But if we're talking about the present it's this the BMW i5. The thing about this
06:35 one is it has about 500 kilometers of range and that's pretty big especially for an electric
06:42 vehicle. So yes it's a technological tour de force which is what you'd expect from BMW.
06:48 However the styling has been a bit debatable. Some people like it some people don't but you
06:56 know what this is BMW and you might be surprised that this is going to be a trendsetter in its
07:00 segment and its other competitors as well. So that wraps up my bit of the Japan Mobility Show.
07:07 I'm going to send you over now to Denzo who's going to take a look at one of my favorite SUVs.
07:12 All right thanks for the handoff Anton. Good job.
07:23 What the hell? What the hell is this? Like okay this is the Nio Steer. It's a concept and there are no pedals, no
07:33 no brake, no gas. You press this switch to accelerate. I mean look at it it's so Japan
07:42 it's so Toyota right. Yes and it's not finished obviously. They have to put audio buttons,
07:56 cruise control buttons, the usual modern touches on all modern steering wheels but of course
08:04 we're inside the LC250. It was introduced a few months ago and we don't need to sell you this.
08:13 We don't need to to promote or market this. This the waiting lines for this will be epic.
08:19 It's roomy. It's about it feels a little larger than the Fortuner inside about mid-size left-hand
08:29 drive. Ready na? So let's check out the outside. This is one of those cars that doesn't need a
08:38 description. How would I put it? Right now it's the best of Toyota in a Toyota. See the nice
08:48 retro badge spelled out. The people who designed the FJ Cruiser were the ones who designed this.
08:56 Toyota's Calty Research in California. It's amazing. In the metal it looks so much better.
09:05 This nice brown mustard color. It's not that big. It's about
09:12 it's about my height six feet six feet and the proportions, the sharp angles, this grille
09:26 you just want to take it outdoors.
09:28 You probably won't be able to guess what car this is.
09:41 They can guess. So it's the Century crossover SUV. The Century is Toyota's flagship that's only
09:53 sold in Japan and a few select embassies get it. I suspect there are a few more markets around the
10:00 world this time. The lines are very long for this I heard. Let's hope we see this on our roads.
10:09 I'm not even sure they'll make a left-hand drive version but it's amazing in person. The grille,
10:16 the sharp lights, and the like it doesn't care about aerodynamics like it's so flat and I like
10:23 that boldness about it. We're not back at the airport, believe it or not, we are at the Honda
10:30 booth and the Japanese carmaker really went big on mobility this year. When they said mobility,
10:36 they really meant it. From this aircraft, this is the HondaJet Elite 2 which they have on display.
10:41 They also have a scale model of the HondaJet Elite and it looks pretty wild. They also have
10:48 something as compact as personal mobility devices like the electric kick scooter, a bicycle,
10:55 and the moto compacto which I honestly want to try out but they're not giving out rides today.
11:01 Of course, over here is the highlight of the show and this is the Prelude concept. This is the two-door
11:08 sports car concept that Honda unveiled at the show. It's basically what the future of performance
11:13 cars from Honda would look like. No details about that just yet but you may have already seen
11:18 our walk around of this thing. Now moving on here, we have the Prologue prototype. This is the first
11:26 ever electric crossover from Honda. You may have also seen that in one of our recent videos. And
11:32 over here, another one that we already featured. This is the Cruise Origin, a self-driving taxi
11:38 that's set to roll out in 2026. Now over here, smallest device Honda has here. This is a tag
11:45 for your shoes. Honestly, I'm not sure what it does. We also tried this out already. This is a
11:53 personal mobility device that has no controls. It moves with your head. It's a pretty weird concept
12:00 but it's also pretty fun. You might see people trying it out here. There you go.
12:04 Another one of the highlights from this year for Honda is the Sustain-A-See concept. It's
12:10 packaged together with the Pocket concept. This is not the Honda e. It's not like the Honda e.
12:15 This is actually built using sustainable materials. So as the world goes towards
12:20 carbon neutrality, this is part of Honda's push for that. Now let's wrap up this tour of the
12:26 Honda booth by showing you the Afila. This is a joint venture between Sony and Honda and it's
12:36 Sony's first dip into the automotive market. As you may be familiar with Sony, it's a brand known
12:45 for various technologies like of course the PlayStation, its audio devices, and its televisions.
12:51 And basically they've put everything into this one. It has various displays. You can watch films.
12:59 You can play games actually. And supposedly it has a banging good sound system and we're expecting
13:06 nothing less from Sony. Of course it's combined with Honda to make use of the car makers technologies
13:12 for this electric vehicle. We're also curious to see how this one will look like in the future but
13:18 so far even if we're not being able to get close to it, it's looking pretty good.
13:23 We're now here at the Suzuki booth where they have a lot of models on display. They actually
13:29 have a Wagon R that runs on compressed biomethane gas. They have this Bergman that supposedly runs
13:35 on hydrogen fuel but we're going to focus on three because we don't have a lot of time here on stage.
13:40 We have here beside us the Swift concept. Well it's basically a preview of what the next-gen
13:46 Suzuki Swift could look like. It has still that same silhouette of the hatchback that we know
13:52 but only it has this more aggressive looking and a sportier design. You have these bigger headlamps
13:58 up front. It almost looks like a bug-eye headlight. You have this blacked-out grille here. You have
14:03 more accentuating trim underneath. Now they didn't reveal the specs yet so we don't know
14:07 what's under the hood but they did say that this will be equipped with more safety features such
14:12 as collision mitigation braking with forward collision warning. That's something that the
14:16 old generation didn't have. So inside, this is still a concept so we're not sure if this is
14:22 going to carry over to the production model but it looks a lot nicer than the Swift we know. It's
14:28 still got a lot of fabric and a lot of plastics but that's what you'd expect from a hatchback
14:33 in this segment. It has this armrest, that's what I've noticed, and it's still got a familiar
14:39 steering wheel and a familiar instrument cluster so I'm pretty sure they might change that somewhere
14:44 along the way. The third concept we're going to highlight today is the EWX. It's an electric
14:51 K-Wagon concept of sorts. Now as with the EVX, they don't have a lot of details about this one just
14:57 yet but we do know that this will have about 230 kilometers of range. The battery size here is still
15:03 undisclosed but at least we get a good look at it again and it looks also just like the EVX, another
15:09 futuristic Suzuki. You've got this rounded out rectangular highlight on the front fascia. You
15:16 have, you don't have a grille, you do have this grille-like pattern underneath and it looks very
15:22 retro. You have these vertical trims on the sides and it's got a nice color to it. This is, I think,
15:29 grayish white and it has these neon green accents and black top roof. So this one has a very, very,
15:38 very quirky interior. I am in love. It's got yellow green seats and this square, you don't even call
15:46 it a steering wheel, it's a steering box. Oh, sorry. So again, this is just a concept so you've got
15:55 something, you've got a wild looking cabin here. You've got mesh like this, this is fabric on the
16:00 dash. What is this? I think these are earbuds. I don't know what these are for to be honest, maybe
16:06 to strap on your gadgets or something and you have this big display again up front.
16:13 By the looks of it, it has a battery charge here, it's got the weather and I'm sure it has smartphone
16:20 connectivity. So many textures here, it's a bit overwhelming. Now here on the center console,
16:27 you have this, I don't know if it's even an armrest, but you do have this cool shift knob.
16:34 It's like a switch, it's like a huge switch. Drive, neutral, reverse, park. You also have a parking
16:40 brake. Oh, you have an auto hold feature, that's cool. So this is a four-seater, five-seater-ish
16:47 wagon. It's pretty small, you don't have much of a trunk at the back. Bonus content, we have the
16:53 Spacia concept here. This is actually a hybrid K-Car, so basically we're never going to see it
16:58 in the Philippines. So Spacia stands for some days don't go well, please take it easy, all right,
17:04 creativity is always by your side. So let's head on inside. Like the, just like the EWX, this is a
17:14 wagon of sorts. So you do have a spacious four-seater configuration here. It's not as wild
17:21 looking as the EWX. You have a typical cabin here that looks like what you'd see from a typical
17:28 production model car. So I guess that's it for the Suzuki booth then. Nissan has brought a total of
17:34 five concepts for the show, and we can take a look at three of them today, starting with this one,
17:39 the Nissan Hyperpunk concept. So all these five concepts are tailored for a specific buyer profile,
17:45 a user profile, with a unique set of needs. And the Hyperpunk is for content creators,
17:51 artists, influencers, basically anybody who embraces style and innovation, people who are
17:56 not afraid to stand out. And that's for a good reason, because take a look at this, it's a bit
18:01 out there at the moment, but we're not sure how many of these polygonal shapes, these interesting
18:06 surfaces are going to survive into production form. In the cockpit, Nissan says the human-machine
18:13 interface will use cameras and AI to capture the scenery outside and render them in manga or any
18:19 other graphic form on the screens. The car is also designed to be a mobile studio, so it can charge
18:24 gadgets and provide power supply for pop-up events. Finally, AI and headrest biosensors also detect the
18:30 driver's mood and use that to pick lighting and music. We know you guys like vans, and what we
18:37 have here could be a potential Alphard competitor. This is called the Hyper Tourer, and it's for
18:43 individuals who value luxury and company. Those front seats actually swivel to face the back,
18:49 and because apparently talking face-to-face isn't connected enough in the future,
18:55 there are headrests that the occupants can use to interact in the virtual world and collaborate on
19:01 things like setting a music playlist, choosing a destination, or customizing the lighting. But of
19:08 course, AI can also do that for you by using biometric sensors to read your mood and make
19:12 music recommendations. The exterior uses a lot of Japanese elements. For example, the wheels are
19:20 based on a pattern called Fumiko. It's a Japanese woodworking technique that does not use nails.
19:26 Of course, again, the exterior, it will not survive intact. Some of these elements will
19:32 remain in concept form, but the overall shape I think is doable. It will translate more easily
19:40 into production form compared with something like the Hyperpunk. So maybe in a couple of years or so,
19:47 we will see something like this on our roads.
19:52 We went to Tokyo wondering if we will finally see an all-new GT-R, and this is our answer.
20:02 The Nissan Hyperforce previews the direction for this model, the potential direction for this model.
20:08 It's an all-electric concept, so it's for people who embrace performance but want to be
20:13 environmentally conscious about it. Nissan says none of these concepts are tied to a production
20:19 model that exists in the lineup right now, but this car definitely references the Godzilla.
20:25 Look at the taillights, look at that badge up front. Even the names of the driving modes are
20:30 GT for Grand Touring and R for Racing. So obviously, Nissan's having some fun with us here.
20:36 Okay, so let's talk performance. Nismo had a hand in designing the exterior aerodynamic
20:43 elements. The car uses e-Force, all-wheel control technology, and peak power is 1,000 kW,
20:50 they're saying, via an all-solid-state battery. The thing is, Nissan says the technology is still
20:56 in development. It might take maybe four or five years before it's launched. So if we are going to
21:02 see an all-electric GT-R, if this were to evolve into that, maybe that hints at the timeline for
21:09 the production model. But of course, we can only speculate.
21:15 [end]
21:15 Transcription by CastingWords
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