Part of the industrial giant's lineup for the 2017
Geneva Motor Show, the Toyota i-TRIL concept adopts a rather unusual setup. Its wheel
arrangement is similar to that of a 2+1 trike, but with two wheels spaced
closely together at the back and farther apart up front, and a 1+2 seating
layout inside.
Similar to the i-Road concept, the i-TRIL is designed to lean into corners (at up to ten
degrees) instead of remaining upright like a car, with an articulated
suspension to keep all four wheels on the ground.
Weighing in at a spritely 600 kilograms and stretching less than ten feet long, the i-TRIL has a comparable
turning circle to the Toyota iQ, making it highly maneuverable in the urban
environments in which it's designed to operate.
Power comes from an electric motor of unspecified
capacity but a range quoted at over 185 miles on a full charge. The vehicle is
envisioned to operate autonomously, but when the driver wants to
take over, there's no pedals, instrument panel, or even a traditional steering
wheel for that matter – just a joystick-like controller and a head-up display.
But even in autonomous mode, it alerts the occupants of an impending corner
into which it's about to lean.
The bodywork, blurs the lines between
metal and glass by gradually fading from one to the other. And access is
granted via butterfly doors that even take a chunk of the floor with it to
facilitate ingress and egress.
It's a novel take on urban transportation, to be
sure. And even if it doesn't see mass production, it's interesting to see what
one of the biggest players in the game has in mind for the future.
