The biennial Tokyo Motor Show is an important event that gives Japanese car makers the opportunity to showcase concepts and production cars designed specifically for their home market. This year, Nissan will present a boxy, futuristic — and oddly-named — concept called Teatro for Dayz that’s aimed specifically at digital natives.
Nissan sampled next-generation customers and found that digital natives who don’t need a car aren’t particularly interested in owning one because they can’t stay connected to the outside world from behind the wheel. To fix the problem, Nissan asked its designers to create a vehicle that’s highly customizable, compact, connected and entirely electric.
When viewed from the outside, the Teatro for Dayz features a modern design reminiscent of the Cube that was recently given the axe. Its front fascia falls in line with Nissan’s latest design language thanks to styling cues that include sharp, elongated headlights and a short rendition of the company’s ubiquitous U-shaped grille. Interestingly, the black cladding right above the rocker panels on both sides is a large, two-piece screen that can be configured to show images, or important information such as how much juice is left in the battery.
When the car is turned off, the seats, the steering wheel, dashboard and the door panels are white. As soon as the ignition is flicked to the “on” position, however, nearly every part of the interior can be customized in a seemingly endless number of ways. For example, the dash and the wheel can be given a classic wood-like look, and the seats can be programmed to display a leather-like upholstery. Alternatively, all three can be configured to show a more artsy Harlequin-esque pattern.
Nissan’s research determined that digital natives think of driving as stressful, so it’s no surprise that technical details aren’t available. All we know about what’s under the hood is that the concept is entirely electric, and that its driving range is sufficient for short commutes. More important — at least from the point of view of the Teatro’s target audience — the pack can be used to top up mobile devices even when the car is turned off.
Nissan has not revealed what the future holds for the Teatro for Dayz concept. It’s unlikely to make the jump to production as-is, but select features might trickle down to the company’s production cars over the next few years.
