Here fishy, fishy: Nissan's concept

But Nissan has broken the ice with its Land Glider concept, unveiled to the world's press ahead of the Tokyo Motor Show this week.

In fairness, even though the Land Glider is something of a bike/car hybrid — it doesn't have a steering wheel — there's much more to it than quirky looks. The Land Glider is, perhaps, one of the most original concepts in years. Unless you can recall the 1997 Mercedes F300 ‘Carver' and 2006 BMW Clever, which were pretty much the same thing without the electric drivetrain of the Nissan.

When Nissan's design team was tasked with developing a zero-emissions vehicle that sliced up all existing car segments, the Land Glider is what they came up with.

They say it's the company's vision for the future, which means that some day we'll be looking at the world at a 17-degree angle: the Land Glider features steering-by-wire and leaning capability through corners — like a motorcycle. This enables the whole ‘car' and its tyres to tilt. In turn, cornering speeds are improved, aided by sensors that calculate velocity, steering angle and yaw rate to instantly feed the amount of lean required for a specific bend.

Because more than half the planet's population will soon live in urban areas, carmakers seem to be turning to motorcycles as a basis for future vehicle design. With the Land Glider, Nissan added a cabin that seats two passengers in tandem and a clean powertrain underneath; drive comes from two electric motors in the rear powered by lithium-ion batteries.

A genius innovation is a non-contact charging system that allows the Land Glider to be topped up wirelessly at locations where the infrastructure exists.What's more, Nissan took a look at fish to make sure the cocoon-like cabin instils a sense of safety for its occupants. Yup, fish!

Sensors in the body are able to detect other vehicles and change the Land Glider's path away from any danger. Think about it: you never see fish crashing into each other, do you? Also, the Land Glider's creators don't want us to view it as just another meaningless show attraction. It's supposed to be a clear indication of how small Nissans could look like in the future.

They should rethink the name though. How about the Nissan Sardine?

160kmOne full charge will hold enough power for the average daily commute