It all started when…

All big ideas have humble beginnings.  Every brainwave starts on the drawing board.  These are universal truths, but particularly applicable to the world of cutting-edge vehicles, where high R&D investment and punishing production costs, not to mention the glare of global publicity, mean innovations, performance, and opinions have to be thoroughly tested well before the wheels of mass production start turning.  

Never has this been more evident than today, as the very notions of what is a ‘vehicle’ and the concept of ‘mobility;’ itself undertakes their biggest revolution in generations.

For decades, cars, bikes and planes have endured with little more than tweaks and tucks around a relatively static concept – the shift from leaded to unleaded fuel, the introduction of a new technology that soon becomes ubiquitous and a safety standard like anti-lock braking systems (ABS), or the widespread adoption of in-car navigation systems, for example.

We no longer live in a world of such modest progressions . . . .

In our modern, turbocharged reality we are rushing towards an exotic new future.  A future in which vehicles are powered by new, sustainable sources of energy; where some cars drive themselves or where ‘hybrid vehicles’ merge the merits of multiple modes of transport.  With unprecedented speed we are driving, pedaling and in some cases even flying into a brave new world.

Not all of these ‘vehicles of tomorrow’ will see mass production.  That is the very purpose of a concept vehicle – to test ideas and innovations to see which best satisfy future trends and promise a viable commercial destiny.  Concept vehicles have a long and varied history.  Understanding some of these milestones can help place today’s technological trendsetters in a more realistic context.