Nissan PIVO 3 Concept

Since the introduction of the PIVO 1 Concept in 2005, Nissan has already presented seven different EV concepts including the second generation PIVO, unveiled in 2007.

At the upcoming 42nd Tokyo Motor Show, Nissan will be revealing the PIVO 3, defined by the company as a “a more realistic EV of the near future”.

Compared to the first two iterations, the new PIVO has a more traditional packaging, since it gives up the distinctive pivoting cabin.

Measuring under 3m in length, the PIVO 3 can transport three people arranged in a 1+2 seating layout.

The exterior design proposes a new direction, leaving the round surface language for a more “serious” and aggressive treatment made of sharp edges and angled surfaces, which is more in line with the current trends.

The interior is characterized by simple lines and a high-tech atmosphere defined by the white-blue color scheme.

The three seats are almost arranged in a single row, with the driver seating in the middle, slightly forward, and the passengers’ seats moulded into the rear surfaces of the cabin.

All the lines, including the patterns of stripes on the driver seat’s and on the door panels, converge to the the visual core of the interior, represented by the control unit consisting of the U-shaped steering wheels and the large LCD display, and complemented by the side rear-view cameras.

Among the features of the new concept is the Automated Valet Parking (AVP), a system that allows the car to park automatically in specially-equipped parking lots.

The PIVO 3 is also capable of recharging or selling excess power to the grid. In addition, “the driver can call PIVO 3 and summon it to the driver’s location using a smartphone.”

Thanks to the compact body and the narrow-tread wheels with IWM (in-wheel motors), the car has an extremely small turning radius of just 2 meters, with zero turn gap.

Like the PIVO 2, the PIVO 3 features the Robotic Agent interface, which allows the car to act as a personal assistant to the driver, and advanced connectivity options.

Below we report an official video including interviews with Francois Bancon, deputy divisional GM for product strategy, and Taro Ueda, design director of product design (part of the transcript is reported after the video).

To what extent has PIVO 3 evolved from PIVO and PIVO 2?

Taro Ueda: “It’s not an easy challenge for us. As an iconic design, it’s something we enjoy to play around, something new and [we can] forget about today’s design theme. But PIVO 3 is exactly designed for the mainstream of our EV, so we have a lot of requirements: Nissan-ness, EV-ness, to be realistic and environmentally friendly. That means we have mixture of requirements and the design teams are working hard to make sure all those requirements are combined into one design and that design should be at a higher level than PIVO and PIVO 2.

“We’re proud of this design because the final execution is such a high level of design including Nissan-ness and EV-ness and also the real-car feeling. You can feel those things through the design.”