Autoblog UK

The Subaru Hybrid Tourer was the main attraction on the company's stand at this year's Tokyo Motor Show. The PR people had even worked out a catchy slogan for it: "Take a Moment to Free Your Mind." Subaru envisage the Hybrid Tourer as a new approach to designing the Grand Tourismo vehicles of tomorrow, which will need to combine the two virtues of reliability and eco-friendliness in equal measure. In the case of this concept tourer, the Japanese manufacturer has gone for a two-engine hybrid system, with a motor under the bonnet busy generating electricity and powering the front wheels while another electric motor at the back drives the rear axle. Particularly eye-catching are two gull-wing doors providing easy access to the four individual seats. Large expanses of glass give an impression of airy spaciousness in the cabin of this 4.63-metre-long vehicle.

The VW Beetle, the Mini and the Fiat 500 are all brilliant examples of small cars from the good old days that have gained an ever-increasing number of new admirers and buyers after relaunch. The retro trend has been a resounding success for those manufacturers. The next cult car is now in the pipeline. Citroen are to resurrect the 2CV, better known as the 'Duck'. Around five million examples of the Duck sold worldwide between 1948 and 1990. In truth, there's not much left of the old body shape but at first sight, the car looks very zippy. The Citroen DS2's design is largely based on the REVOLTe concept car that so fascinated visitors to September's Frankfurt Motor Show. The treatment of the rear holds the greatest nostalgia value for former fans – it's very accomplished. The lack of a roll-up roof is sure to be addressed in a future model. Expected price is a not unreasonable 13,000 euros, (around £11,700).

Since 2004, a string of muscle cars from the sixties and seventies have been making a comeback. Mustangs, Challengers and Camaros can again be found in places other than America. Iconic names bristling with new technology sell well. All that's actually still missing is a retro version of the Firebird, Pontiac's last great cult car.

In 2009, General Motors announced Pontiac's demise due to the worldwide economic crisis. Unfortunately for fans, there won't be a successor to the Firebird. But in the USA, there's one customizer itching to turn dreams into reality. For many years, drag racer John Lingenfelter has belonged to the cream of the US tuning scene. At the SEMA show in Las Vegas, the Indiana-based tuner displayed a Pontiac 455 T/A built on Chevrolet Camaro underpinnings. Lingenfelter intends to gauge the public's response before finally deciding whether to put the Firebird into production. One thing in favour of this relaunch must surely be the performance of the V8 engine under the shaker scoop that should put out 655bhp.

Organisers of the Los Angeles Auto Show invited design studios based in Southern California to set out their vision for Mobile Teens in 2030 (Youthmobile 2030). Studies were drawn up by design studios at General Motors, Audi, Honda, Nissan, Mazda and Toyota. 2009 is the sixth year that this Design Challenge has been held. The winner will be announced on Press Day at the Los Angeles Auto Show, 2nd and 3rd December 2009.

Car Hero by General Motors can drive itself and is steered by mobile phone (that's if they are still around in 2030). Audi designers submitted two very bold design studies, the eSpira and the eOra, that are guided to their destination by hand movements (not a good idea for those of us who are not at our best in the mornings but nevertheless need to get to work). Nissan's V2G is an eco-friendly electrically powered car. This e-car has an aerodynamic egg shape and six wheels. In Mazda's Souga, the car's two occupants sit diagonally behind one another. According to its designers, buyers of the Souga will configure the car to suit their needs. Both Nissan and Toyota designers believe that, in 2030, vehicles travelling in the rush hour will often be joined together in groups of two or more. The Toyota's appearance can be digitally altered and tyre friction converted back into energy.

There's going to be an addition to Volkswagen's luxury marque. The Veyron supercar is getting a big brother. The model is still at the design stage but is now being presented to customers around the world. With the Bugatti 16C Galibier, the manufacturer intends to offer a saloon as well at a future date.

First pictures show that this Bugatti has an elegant shape with a long bonnet, which opens on both sides. This high-class motor car has the obligatory two-tone colour paint job. Doors and wings are made of polished aluminium, the remaining bodywork is carbon fibre. And the rear is sheer poetry. In the cockpit, your gaze immediately alights on the small round gauges. And what do you see? A speedo needle that goes up to 260mph! The Galibier is four-wheel drive and, as in the Veyron, power comes from an 8-litre, 16-cylinder 1,001bhp engine with two-stage supercharging.

The Tokyo Motor Show has always been different from the rest. This applies to the vehicles on parade and to the visitors in equal measure. Basically, the Japanese and the Europeans have divergent tastes. They read manga comics (by preference to Donald Duck), are mad about electronic gadgetry and drive cars that we would consider shoe boxes on wheels.

This became clear from the concept cars exhibited by the national automotive industry, which effectively turned it into a design Disneyland. There was hardly a serious idea on display with any future prospect of realisation. The Toyota FT-86 will certainly grace the landscape as the next generation Celica. But virtually all the other show models have no chance at all of ever making it onto the road.

Mitsubishi plan to fill a gap in their current portfolio with a new compact SUV. The vehicle will have name by the time of its European debut at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show. Visually, the newcomer will have a lot in common with the Concept CX first exhibited in 2007. The first drawings show a sporty sloping roof line and a gaping shark's jaw grille. The front view is very much in keeping with the new brand visage now familiar from the mid-range Mitsubishi Lancer.

At the IAA in Frankfurt, Honda were prominent by their absence. Now, at the Tokyo Motor Show, the Japanese carmaker seems determined to compensate in full. They have the biggest stand of all the exhibitors and have filled it up with an array of design studies that are brimful of new ideas, albeit eccentric in part. One of the design highlights of the show is bound to be the Honda Skydeck Concept. This futuristic, airily named family van is clearly a long way removed from being a production-ready vehicle, yet it arouses more than just passing interest. With its windscreen blending into a glass roof, driver and passengers have an impression of unconstrained freedom. The seating too has been designed with leisure in mind. The front doors open upwards and the rear doors slide backwards. In other words, they're doors, Jim, but not as we know them. There is no B-pillar to impede ingress. And if you prefer to sit in the third row, you can push the second bench under the front seat. Under the bonnet, a hybrid PLUS engine provides an eco-friendly drive.

Visitors to the Tokyo Motor Show can admire a prototype of the Honda CR-Z hybrid sports car that is claimed to be ready for series production, though whether this gleaming white vision ever makes it onto the road is anyone's guess. For the present, at least, Honda are once again showcasing the sporty hybrid model just as a design study. So will they or won't they? Honda have the biggest stand of all the manufacturers exhibiting at the Tokyo Motor Show. It would be a pity if they were merely using the CR-Z to fill up what would otherwise have been an empty space.

At the Tokyo Motor Show, local carmaker Mitsubishi will be presenting an SUV prototype with a revolutionary hybrid engine/motor that they claim is capable of beating the psychological 2 litres per 100km threshold. The PX-MiEV concept is powered by a newly developed plug-in hybrid system capable of delivering over 140 miles to the gallon. The vehicle combines the best of modern drive technology with superb road dynamics. The latter are provided by the new Mitsubishi S-AWC (Super All Wheel Control) four-wheel drive system plus E-AYC (Electric-Powered Active Yaw Control) drive function which ensures the variable distribution of drive torque between left and right-hand side of the vehicle.