Another year, another crossover – but wait, this isn’t a new concept; Nissan unveiled the IMx Concept crossover late last year at Tokyo Motor Show. Yes, this has become the vehicle genre of this particular generation of models. The IMx Concept was a glimpse into the future of Nissan Intelligent Mobility, further integrating an imagined autonomous car future with our daily lives. While we’re not likely to see the IDx concept making it to production, the IMx probably will – and this KURO version is an updated variant of the concept with more black trim and a dark grey body colour.
If you thought gesture control and eye tracking was cool, the IMx Concept has brain to vehicle (B2V) technology that interprets the driver’s brainwaves in order to tell the car what to do. This sounds a little far fetched but it could very well be the future of autonomous driving and could make the driving experience a lot simpler. The system connects to the driver via a headset, and it can improve response time of the systems by 0.2 to 0.5 seconds – quick enough to avoid a potential accident.
ProPILOT also makes a return with this concept, being a fully autonomous driving mode that even stows away the steering wheel. We’ve seen this on previous Nissan autonomous concept vehicles, and it’s hard to argue against making the cabin a little more spacious for all occupants, driver included. Selecting manual mode sees the controls pop back out to transfer control back to the driver.
The IMx Concept is an all-electric vehicle as well. Nissan says such a concept would be powered by a pair of high-output electric motors at either end, giving it all-wheel drive capabilities, a whopping 429 hp and 700 Nm of torque – the latter figure being more than an R35 GT-R. A high capacity battery that’s been re-engineered for higher energy density would give the IMx a range of over 600 kilometres on a single charge.
As for the rest of the design features, they are fairly par for the course for an electric vehicle. Front end design is devoid of any air inlets or openings to remind onlookers that there is no internal combustion engine powering this machine. There is social integration and convenience in the sense that the concept is capable of self parking and self charging, and even returning unused energy back to the power grid.
Even the interior revolves around the idea of openness, in the sense that there is no division between the interior and exterior of the car as you would find in a conventional car. A panoramic OLED instrument panel that wraps around the cabin provides an external view, further enhancing the al fresco feeling. The cabin layout is less cluttered with more reliance on intangible controls such as gestures and eye tracking. In short, it’s like every other electric autonomous crossover concept car making its rounds.
Keyword: Geneva 2018: Nissan IMx KURO Concept Makes European Debut