At the North American International Auto Show, Nissan has unveiled its future direction for sedan design with the Vmotion 2.0 concept. This aptly-named showcase car is cabin-focused and very future-centric, concentrating on the company's Intelligent Mobility ideals.
The hallmark of the current Nissan design language is the V-shaped grille appearing on all of the company's vehicles. This is called the "Vmotion" design language, and this new concept takes that a step further as the next generation of the Nissan look. Words like "futuristic" and "dynamic" were suitably over-used in the descriptions of it.
From the outside, although the Vmotion 2.0 has a lot of body lines and dimpling that would not likely ever make a production model (though Nissan did bring us the Juke, so anything is possible), it's definitely a beautiful sedan. It begins, obviously, with the Vmotion grille.
That new Nissan grille takes the current Vmotion design and pushes it further with a few tweaks that accentuate the front end's futurism. The V itself is much larger, outlining a large trapezoidal mesh which is centered by the Nissan stamp. To either side of the V edges is a parallel dark V indent, which offsets and matches the wide grille openings. Massively oversized side intakes and tiny, very thin headlamps flank the grille work. The hood above has creases running in tandem on either edge to create fender bumps that flow into very thick edges covering wide tires.
From the side, the Vmotion 2.0 concept carries deep cut lines that keep the focus on those heavy tires without taking away from the solidity of the sedan. The implied weightiness of the car is made possible by the thin-pillared, "floating roof" design that takes the current-generation Maxima's look and carries it into a new realm. The curvature of the Maxima sedan's hood and rear deck are very similar in this concept car, though, as are the rear fender bulges.
At the rear, a short, clipped deck below a fastback-styled window results in a thick rear profile. Thin sideways-V-shaped tail lights and an active wind scoop are unique, though, and add a lot of action. The aggressive departure angle of the lower rear fascia showcases the wide tires that propel the Vmotion 2.0.
Inside the concept, a pillar-less door design opens up the interior to full view. The rear door opens rearward in "suicide" fashion, and both the front and rear doors are hinged to lift out for a full 90-degree open. The rear seats are mounted to the back wall of the sedan to create a "floating" effect when viewed from this outside-in angle. The front seating has a similar, low-slung mount hidden by the lower lip of the door openings for the same effect.
Nissan aimed for a minimalist design to the Vmotion 2.0's interior, showcasing a large dash screen that runs nearly the full length of the uplifted dashboard. A square-shaped, Indy-inspired steering wheel with a T-shaped spoke design houses a few simple control buttons. Below the wheel, pedals are inset directly to the floor, rather than levering down.
A simple row of climate controls with a dial at left is at the center of the Vmotion 2.0 concept's stack. Below that, along the transmission tunnel, is the push-button start, gear selection, and armrest. Zebra wood inlay, soft-touch fibers, copper, and leather are the interior's primary materials choices.
In the back seats, whose design mirror those of the driver and front passenger, plush seating and a lot of glass above and around make for a very open feel. The center tunnel runs between the captain's-style chairs and hosts a pop-up tablet-like interface for accessing various functions in the car such as climate controls and personal audio options.
Each of the four seats in the Vmotion 2.0 have headrests that are home to a Bose "sound bubble" set of speakers. These create an area of sound around the head of whomever is sitting in that seat, allowing for each person in the car to have their own entertainment or for the entertainment option of one to not interfere with the conversation or enjoyment of the others. Parents will probably love this idea. Similarly, the system allows personal phone calls.
One thing Nissan is promoting this year, starting with the CES 2017 promise of a new LEAF electric car, is its ProPILOT semi-autonomous technologies. With the Vmotion 2.0, Nissan is showing what may be possible in the very near future, with autonomous driving in the city – a step beyond the highway and commuter traffic options that are already on the cusp of being commercially available.
The Vmotion 2.0 concept, Nissan says, promises its future design language for sedans. Nissan just debuted a new design for its flagship sedan, the Maxima, last year, however, so we are not sure when this new design language would begin to proliferate.
Source: Nissan
