1986 Suzuki Samurai Hardtop 4wd 5speed 4cyl on 2040-cars

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Funning around with ZF's Smart, Advanced Urban Vehicles

ZF has a lot of experience building various electric vehicle parts, including transmissions, but it doesn't put them all together into one cute little package that often. The ZF Advanced Urban Vehicle changes that, and shows what the company can do when it takes bits and pieces of its admittedly cool tech and throws them all into the shell of an old Suzuki Swift. We got to control the all-electric beast at an event in Germany this summer, using nothing but a connected iPad. There were three headline technologies on the AUV (also called the Smart Urban Vehicle): the remote control Smart Parking Assist function, the all-electric rear-axle drive electric Twist Beam (eTB), and the PreVision Cloud Assist. PreVision Cloud Assist ZF had a short track set up for us to try out the PreVision Cloud Assist. The first time around the track, nothing was different. It's not supposed to be. The trick with Cloud Assist is that the car saves real-world driver interactions into its memory and, with the addition of GPS coordinates, starts to learn how to drive the route. Go to work the same way every day? If you're being assisted by a cloud, then all you have to do is steer. The car learns how fast it can take a turn and when it needs to slow down, with the idea here is to let the car move when it can, increasing the efficiency and range of an EV. You're still in charge in case of traffic ahead, but in open road circumstances, you won't need to touch the brakes or the gas. Just the steering wheel. On my second time around the demo track (which had data from other drivers who had tested the car earlier in the day), I kept my feet off the pedals, and the darn thing worked. It slowed me down when necessary to make a curve, but kept me at a brisk pace that felt a bit too fast but was in fact totally appropriate. Electric Twist Beam There's another bit of cool tech hidden near the front wheels. The car uses a MacPherson strut that was modified to offer a wider steering angle, up to 75 degrees, to be exact. ZF calls this the electric Twist Beam (eTB), and it gives the car an incredibly tight turning radius, about 6.5 meters. An axle like this could go into an EV or an ICE vehicle, but it makes a lot of sense in an electric car since it does have a major problem: it can't be powered. No worries, thought ZF engineers, who made the little SUV rear-wheel-drive by adding two electric motors.

Suzuki brought a retro hybrid coupe and an autonomous van concept to Tokyo Motor Show

Update: More photos and details of these Suzuki concepts have surfaced since their official reveal at the 2019 Tokyo Motor Show. Turns out, the Waku Spo coupe can also be a wagon. We love it. When you swap in the wagon rear end, the rear seat slides back and automatically reclines. All of a sudden, the sporty coupe has turned into a somewhat roomy wagon kei car. Its interior features a fully digital dash that will actually simulate wood grain on the passenger side when in the Normal drive mode. When sport mode is selected, the "wood grain" transforms into a massive screen of dials and vehicle information. The Suzuki Hanare is the van pictured in the gallery and further below. Its drive wheels feature in-wheel electric motors, and the interior is all about customization. The folks in Suzuki's press photos look happy to be hanging out by their Hanares, and we think we'd be pretty happy too. One of the vans has a bar; the other has a massive screen with a map, and the middle van is full of storage for outdoor activity supplies. Lastly, Suzuki showed us the Hustler Concept. It's essentially just a Hustler made to look like an off-road kei car. We're picking up the Jimny vibes Suzuki is laying down. It's wonderfully boxy and features a bevy of neat accessories. Suzuki is celebrating its 100th anniversary at this year's Tokyo Motor Show. To mark the occasion, the company has created two unique concepts that look to the past for style, and the future for powertrain and use cases. One is called the Waku Spo, and the other is the Hanare. The Waku Spo is pictured above, and it's a plug-in hybrid with styling rooted in '60s Japanese cars. It's simple and squared off save for the wide fender flares and charming round headlights. There are dashes of chrome trim around the car and two-tone paint. The fender-mounted rearview cameras are a high-tech twist on a classic Japanese car feature. But if this design doesn't appeal to you, Suzuki says body and interior parts can be quickly switched out so each driver can have a car that's personalized to their tastes. While the Waku Spo is a more traditional, driver-oriented car, the Hanare is more of an autonomous pod. According to Suzuki, Hanare translates to "cottage" and the theme of the van is to be your home away from home. It's meant to be a mobile room to do whatever you want. It also looks like it's intended to be private and secluded, as the only windows are slender pieces that wrap around the roof.

Toyota, Suzuki partner on hybrids, EVs, building cars for each other

NAGOYA, Japan — Toyota and Suzuki on Wednesday said they planned to produce electric vehicles and compact cars for each other to better compete with fast-changing technologies in the global auto industry. The agreement follows an initial R&D tie-up announced by Japan's No. 1 and No. 4 automakers in 2017, and will see more vehicles produced by Suzuki for Toyota, one of the world's biggest carmakers. Although Suzuki is far smaller, it is a dominant force in the fast-growing Indian market. The two automakers have been pooling their strengths. Toyota is a leader in hybrid technology and is investing heavily in automated driving, while Suzuki specializes in affordable compact cars — as many automakers struggle to keep pace with ballooning investment in EVs and self-driving cars. Under the latest agreement, Suzuki will source gasoline hybrid systems for cars it sells worldwide from Toyota, which pioneered hybrid vehicles with the Prius more than 20 years ago, the companies said in a joint statement. In return, Suzuki will produce two compact models for Toyota in India based on its Ciaz and Ertiga models. Further cooperation with Suzuki will help Toyota expand its presence in India, the world's fifth-largest passenger car market where it has struggled to grow sales due to lean demand for its lower-cost models. The deepening partnership between the two automakers will enable cost-conscious Suzuki to tap into Toyota's R&D firepower to develop lower-emission vehicles and self-driving cars — areas which Suzuki has admitted it is struggling to keep up. "We believe that the expansion of our business partnership with Suzuki ... will help give us the competitive edge we will need to survive this once-in-a-century period of profound transformation," Toyota President Akio Toyoda said in a statement. The two automakers will deepen their cooperation in India, where Suzuki's hybrid vehicles will be made using engines and batteries locally produced by Toyota. They will also join forces in Europe, where Toyota will produce electric vehicles based on its RAV4 SUV crossover and Corolla wagon for Suzuki, while Suzuki will supply Toyota with gasoline engines for compact vehicle models sold in the region. Suzuki will also produce its Baleno, Vitara Brezza, Ciaz, and Ertiga models for Toyota which will be rebranded and renamed as Toyota models for the African market.