2002 Toyota UUV - AllCarIndex

Original name: トヨタ UUV

NEW CONCEPTS, NEW CUSTOMERS FOR TOYOTA UUV

Toyota is using this year’s Geneva Motor Show for the world premiere of a concept car that challenges current thinking in automotive design.

The new concept highlights the spirit of innovation within Toyota worldwide and the company’s constant desire to leap forward – studying new markets and new opportunities in order to offer customers their dream cars of the future.

So, the Toyota UUV (or Urban Utility Vehicle) is dramatically revealed as a possible face of the future.

It has the potential to be the next step forward for sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and to create an entirely new urban niche in the market – just as Toyota did with the launch of the breakthrough RAV4, back in 1994.

UUV offers customers the unique ‘stand-out’ qualities of the current 4x4 market blended with typical urban features, such as sophisticated design, clean geometric surfaces and excellent road behaviour. It also seeks to blend Japanese culture – expressed by technical innovation – with European culture, represented by the exterior shape.

The UUV was created in Europe by Toyota’s European design centre (ED2). The target of UUV is a new type of customer – born of the urban environment but ready to be adventurous in their driving. These customers are progressive, successful and already drive large family cars which they enjoy for their comfort, space and premium equipment levels. But they seek more.

They are active people for whom the choice of car is a statement about themselves and their lifestyle. They are looking for something different, powerful and innovative. At the same time they want to retain the prestige of a premium car.

Perhaps in their early 40s, with a family, these customers are ready to move out of the traditional mainstream and take a step forward.

They will do this with Toyota UUV.

Innovative concept

The Toyota UUV is a new generation of multi cross-over vehicle which blends the best characteristics of SUVs with other premium car values such as design, road behaviour, comfort and performance.

The UUV concept blends hatchback, saloon and estate into one harmonised multi-cross body. The car has 4x4 presence on the road with strong flared wheelarches and huge wheels. It is big (around 4,430mm long, 1,820mm wide and 1,650mm high). A long wheelbase ensures a spacious interior.

Yet the overall effect is sleek and aerodynamic. The exterior features strong sweeping character lines, sharp surface edges and a tall, sloping roofline. Tense, geometric surfaces are typical of the urban environment in which this car will mainly be seen.

Advanced technology

Toyota is a worldwide leader in the SUV market with advanced 4x4 technology, proven reliability and design. The UUV builds on this positioning with further Japanese advanced thinking.

A key feature of the interior is the full width, dash mounted screen which offers entertainment and navigational functions to both driver and passenger. This system is called ‘Glass Vision’ and is supplied by Denso. This screen is made of a special resin called photopolymer, which is capable of refracting light in the form of a prism. Another component of the system is the projector, which is used to project a clear holographic image in this screen.

The advantages of ‘Glass Vision’ over a traditional LCD display are quite clear. This innovative system allows a more realistic display and allows a bigger projection area without the constraints of a 7’’ screen, like usual. Undoubtedly, ‘Glass Vision’ brakes new ground in the field of in-car navigation and entertainment systems.

Innovation also extends to the high performance, run-flat tyres especially designed for the UUV which allow Toyota to dispense with the spare tyre, saving space and weight.

Yet functional and comfortable

Ultimately, UUV will offer many of the car-like features which are so important to customers the world over. UUV may be progressive but it is also versatile; it may be striking but it is also spacious; it may be sporty but it is also comfortable.

Toyota’s Urban Utility Vehicle – a glimpse of the future?

SOURCE: Toyota