2023 Daihatsu Hijet Dump Bed on 2040-cars

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Daihatsu's tiny concepts bring big weird to the 2020 Tokyo Auto Salon

Daihatsu will have nine concepts at its 2020 Tokyo Auto Salon stand, featuring influences from the club to the clifftop. The most important is the Taft, which takes the Daihatsu Waku Waku concept showed at this year's Tokyo Motor Show closer to next year's production-ready form. In 1974, Daihatsu released a small, Jeep-ish 4x4 called the Taft, the name an acronym for Tall & Almighty Four-wheel Touring vehicle. The rebirth of the name on a kei-car that Daihatsu bills as "the world's first light crossover," and that comes standard with front-wheel drive and a CVT, necessitates editing the acronym to Tall & Almighty Fun Tool. The rugged pretensions of the Waku Waku are dialed back on the new Taft, with panoramic roof replacing the storage area in the Waku Waku's upper deck, rear doors and windows replacing the orange interior panels and jerry can motif, a more traditional front fascia and less cladding. Three Tanto kei cars dress up in three vastly different guises with three different front fascias. Because no auto show display can go without an overlander, the Tanto Cross Field concept delivers "Active gear you can rely on for your family," said gear appearing to be a roof rack and a set of fog lights. All we know about that Tanto Custom Premium is that it "gives off an overwhelming presence with a fearless black face" that seems to have taken design notes from the Toyota Prius and Mirai, not totally surprising since Toyota owns Daihatsu. The Tanto Marvel Spider-Man concept looks the most like a stock Tanto, wallpapered in panels from a comic book. Three Hijet microvan concepts don personalities for three different career days. The Hatsune Miku Marche concept is a working coffee stand and pop-up store dolled up in collaboration with the turquoise-haired, pony-tailed, "Vocaloid software voicebank" known as Hatsune Miku. Designers of the Hijet Peaks worked with Peaks magazine on the "playable overlander" with indoor climbing wall holds decorating the sides. Since the Hijet is only about 72 inches tall, it won't take much to climb, but Daihatsu will have a more challenging bouldering course in the stand for kids from three to 12 years old. The Hijet Jumbo DJ could be considered a giant DJ booth, DJ Kakushika making an appearance at the show to play a set in the Hijet's bed.

Daihatsu's Tokyo Auto Salon cars are absolutely adorable

There are some pretty weird and wonderful cars coming to the Tokyo Auto Salon in January, from Honda's vintage-style S660 coupe to the off-road Mitsubishi Delica D:5. But as cool as they are, none can approach Daihatsu for sheer cuteness. The company is showing off special versions of its tiny Kei class cars at the custom car show. We've got photos of most of them, but we're going to highlight the best of the bunch, below. We'll start with the Daihatsu Copen coupe (the little green guy up there). The Copen is the Japanese car company's micro-sized roadster, similar in scale to the Honda S660, except it's front-wheel drive. It also has a trick retractable hard top. The Copen coupe loses the retractable top in favor of a rakish permanent hard top. It's based on a concept from 2016 that clearly was popular enough to merit a production model. The styling also comes from the Copen Cero, which has friendly round lights and soft corners, a significant contrast to the edgy, aggressive Copen Robe and XPlay. The coupe model starts a little over $20,000 at current conversion rates and is available with either a CVT or a five-speed manual coupled to a turbocharged 660-cc three-cylinder engine. Daihatsu is also showing more practical cars including some custom versions of the Mira Tocot. The two that grabbed our attention are the Tocot Sporza and the Tocot Active. The former is an angry red hot hatch with a unique red and black paint scheme. Along the side are giant letters spelling out the Tocot Sporza name. This look has a lot of history at Daihatsu, having been featured on the Mira TR-XX, as well as the Charade De Tomaso. And, yes, we mean that De Tomaso. The Tocot Active, on the other hand, has a simple, retro aesthetic with its cheerful blue paint, plain black door handles, and ultra classy cream steel wheels. Then we have a special edition of what we've previous proclaimed to be the most adorable car in the world: the Move Canbus. It looks like it's just happy to be alive, and looks all the better with the blue and white two-tone paint job that would be right at home on a VW Bus. But the German van isn't where the color scheme comes from. Instead, it's inspired by Hatsune Miku, a virtual character from a Japanese singing synthesizer that is enormously popular in Japan. The blue and white mirror her hair and outfits, and small pops of fuchsia match her hair bows. We also have to quickly note the Daihatsu Hijet Marche.

Daihatsu reveals Miata-fighting roadster and more for Tokyo Mobility Show

Daihatsu left the U.S. market way back in 1992, but the brand is still going strong in Japan. The company is wholly owned by Toyota now and specializes in building kei cars and trucks, a special class of lightweight compact city cars. These days most kei vehicles are sensible rectangles to maximize passenger or cargo space inside the strict footprint allowed allowed by the class, but Daihatsu proves some fun can still be had.  And few of the concepts say that more than the Daihatsu Vision Copen (pictured at top). Design-wise it's a modern interpretation of the original Copen roadster introduced in 2002, with almost identical overall shape and round head and taillights. However, the original was more of an open top cruiser with practical front-wheel-drive layout. The Vision Copen, on the other hand, is rear-wheel-drive, showing muscular flared wheel arches that the original never did. It's powered by a 1.3-liter engine running on carbon-neutral fuel (whatever that means), a displacement that exceeds kei car regulations. So does the Vision Copen's footprint, which measures 150 inches long and 67 inches wide, almost the size of the Mazda Miata. It would be amazing if Daihatsu actually produced this car, even though it wouldn't be legal to import until 2049 or so, because the world definitely needs more rear-drive sports cars.  Then comes the me:MO, described as a car that will stay with the owner through many stages of life. It looks to be comprised of modular body panels. It's a trick Daihatsu has actually put on a production car, the Copen roadster, with composite fenders and doors that can be swapped with those of different shape or color. The me:MO appears to be an electric vehicle that has modular components on the inside as well, but the company has not released full details just yet.  The Daihatsu Uniform is the distilled essence of the kei car. Boxy and utilitarian but still exuding a bit of funkiness in the design, it was built to accommodate the working men and women of Japan. Vehicles like this usually serve as cargo haulers in dense urban areas where they can fit down extremely narrow alleys. The name derives from the fact that these workers are required to wear uniforms as they deliver everything from Amazon packages to food. The Uniform comes in two flavors, a cargo van and a truck.  The Daihatsu Osanpo is an open-top kei car built for leisurely cruising.