Thanks to Lascelles for finding this wonderful video showing the most daring concepts from Toyota and Lexus during the Tokyo Motor Show. Although in German, we can glimpse quite a number of interesting concepts such as the Hi-CT, the Rin, the i-Real (which promises unlimited mobility, according to the engineer) and production ready models such as the Crown Hybrid, which owns a lot to the Lexus LS600h.

Just before the Lexus come up, a German engineer from Toyota speaks about the 1/X, weighing just 926 lbs., the car is literally a third of the weight of Toyota's current green car standard, the Prius. Featuring a 500cc engine plus a hybrid electric motor with plug-in capability, this car could deliver 2 l/100 km (that converts to an amazing 117 mpg).

Then the video shows two Lexus cars with hybrid powertrains: the ISF (arriving in Europe in 2008) and LF-XH.

[Source: YouTube]

My favorite concept car at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show is Toyota's I-Real, a chair concept car, so I dug around for some videos of the thing moving around. You can watch videos of the I-Real and iSwing, another concept chair vehicle by Toyota, in action below the fold. I also found another video of the of Nissan's Pivo 2 robot, a worm-headed thing that watches how you feel and goes crazy if you are sad. If you don't cheer up, it won't let you out of the car saying "I am afraid I can't do that, Dave." Wait, maybe that was from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey?

[Source: YouTube]

Picking up the extreme personal mobility theme last seen in the i-Swing from the last Tokyo show, this time Toyota has the i-Real. As before, the battery-powered single seater has three wheels. The rear wheel can extend out back for greater stability and higher speeds. When the rear wheel is pulled in close, the machine stands up straighter and can maneuver in tighter spaces. Apparently Toyota is moving the i-Real toward commercialization although it remains to be seen if this thing will prove to be any more successful than than the two-wheel stand-up Segway.

[Source: Toyota]