Concepts

The top Autos & Vehicles video on YouTube is of the Honda FC Sport, a hydrogen-powered sports car. Rpmfreaks reports the car was unveiled at the LA Auto Show last November.

Honda's official site says the FC Sport (FC for fuel cell) offers "speed, handling and sleek looks of today's fastest sports cars, yet without the noise, heat, vibration, and emissions of the internal-combustion engine."

While hydrogen compact cars and minivans are a reality, the three-seat coupe concept car isn't headed to the production line anytime soon.

One of our favorite aspects of the Geneva auto show are the concepts shown by design houses and engineering firms. Never intended to reach production, these concepts show what the companies can do. EDAG is one such company, and it has just announced its concept for the upcoming Geneva auto show, the Light Car - Open Source. This concept demonstrates new structural materials, liberal use of organic LEDs, and an electric power train. … Read more

So you think minivans are only for mommies? Try this one...

It's the Renault Espace F1, a concept vehicle cum hot lap publicity machine created in 1994 by Renault, Matra, and the Williams Formula One team, which put the 3.5-liter Renault F1 engine featured in the Espace F1 to good use by winning the F1 World Championship in 1993, with Alain Prost driving. Prost drives the Espace F1 in the video, too.

Where the standard Espace had a small engine positioned transversely in front, driving the front wheels, the F1 was a little different. Out that went, replaced … Read more

We saw several electric car concepts at the Detroit auto show, but there were also a set of more traditional concepts with internal combustion engines on the automaker's specification lists. These cars show off the sorts of designs the car companies are looking at for future production models. Volkswagen and Audi push the diesel agenda with new entrants, while Volvo and Subaru show off the future direction of specific models. Lincoln tries out a new take on luxury, while Kia gets playful with its new Soul platform.

See concept cars from the 2009 Detroit auto show.

More 2009 Detroit Auto Show coverage.… Read more

Lincoln surprised us with a new concept at the 2009 Detroit auto show, designed as a compact luxury car. We did get a teaser at the CES 2009 show, where Ford ran a video of a conceptual dashboard without letting on that it was from the C concept. We're impressed that Lincoln realizes there is a future in small cars, and that good things can come in small packages.

See photos of the Lincoln C concept at the 2009 Detroit auto show.

More 2009 Detroit auto show coverage.

The Macworld show floor can induce deja vu for habitual attendees. From a hardware perspective, often it's the same vendors offering the same products, with slight variations from year to year. Despite the gloomy economic outlook, however, I found a surprising amount of new products on the show floor (or, at least new to me). Here are the highlights.

Describing it as an early Christmas present, Volvo released pictures and details of its new S60 concept car today. We appreciate the company's generous spirit, but we really wanted an Audi R8 V10. Maybe Santa will be nicer next year. Volvo shows some standard concept car cues in the S60 concept, with a center stack handmade out of some kind of crystal we've never heard of (Orrefors anyone?), LED headlights, and no B-pillar, giving the car an open feeling when the front and rear windows are down.

The body design looks good, and we would like to see … Read more

Unfazed by dour economic news, Nissan launched the NV2500 concept vehicle today, a work van designed for the American market. Although they lack the glamour of private cars, commercial vehicles can become a substantial revenue source for automakers. Nissan currently sells commercial vehicles in other markets around the world, but the NV2500 serves as an announcement of its intention to compete in North America. Ford showed a similar interest in buffing up its North American commercial offerings when it brought its European Transit Connect to the New York Auto Show.

But where the Transit Connect is meant for urban environments, … Read more

This century, vaunted supercar names such as Ferrari and Lamborghini might be displaced by Honda. At the 2008 Los Angeles Auto Show, Honda showed off a supercar concept, the FC Sport, powered by an electric motor with energy generated by a hydrogen fuel cell. The fuel-cell powertrain, which Honda calls V Flow, is being used in the FCX Clarity, the hydrogen-fueled sedan that Honda currently leases on a limited basis. The FC Sport is designed to be a lightweight, performance-oriented car, and should have a 0-to-60 mph time of under 4 seconds to achieve supercar status. While Honda is known … Read more