The Nissan Mixim concept car has recently been on display at the Frankfurt Motor Show.  If you are a fan of Japanese comic book, you might actually love this thing.

Yoo Eusun was what’s behind the Mixim’s interior-design concept.  This young Nissan’s in-house Mixim competition winner has surprisingly conceptualized this Nissan model from computer games, manga comics, anime and Second Life.  She said, “I am influenced by Japanese animation, like the film Ghost in the Shell.”  She basically adopted the concept with what see thinks the young individuals are getting hooked these days.  Though she doesn’t yet actually join the Second Life, as she said, everyone in Japan is part of it.

An article from independent.co.uk, said “The Mixim is a car aimed at the next generation of drivers.  Through extensive research, speaking with and observing teenagers in Europe, the United States, Japan and even China, Nissan has come to the conclusion that the driving generation to come has no interest in engine size, driving dynamics or speed, but is looking for an alternative to the conventional notion of the car.”  Thus, the market they are in focus with is seen barely looking over of how a Honda engine mount would look like.

General manager Francois Bancon, advanced studio, explained, “The young of today have a different sense of reality…  They are no longer so interested in products, but in experiences.  They interface with the world through the computer.”  “This is a digital-era car,” he emphasized.  So, almost all interest is attached with the computer technology.

The Maxim is powered with a motor/generator using Nissan’s new compact lithium-ion batteries.  It has 4x4 capabilities aided by one motor driving the front axle and another for the rear.

This latest Nissan concept car only measures 3.7 m in length, 1.8 m in width and 1.4 in height.  It is seemingly light at 950 kg.  155 miles (250 km) is the farthest it could run before it needs to be recharged.  It could even go accelerated up to 112 mph (180 km/h).

Chief designer Masato Inoue said, “We didn’t want to produce another cuddly EV, but a concept with genuine character that just happens to be battery-powered.”  According to him Nissan’s design language is the where several elements are derived, including head and tail lamps.  However, “non-defined wavy surfaces are a metaphor for free thinking and are the antithe-sis of conventional machine appearance,” he explained.

Eunsun believes that “today’s youth see no boundaries between the virtual and the real worlds.  She said, “With the driver being in the centre, he is in command of the car…  You also feel like you’re in your own world.”  That is for making the driver seat inspired by Formula 1 and computer games.

Eunsun also said, “The inspiration for Mixim’s design development was ’99 per cent evil, 1 per cent cute’.  This mini-monster theme was developed from a spectrum of Japanese computer-game animations.”

Bancon said, “It may have originated from Japan, but it’s not part of, say, any French kid’s culture.  They probably don’t even know where it came from originally.  It’s now a global vocabulary.”  He believes that this strategy will make them attached to global vision.