Do you remember the days when tinkering with a car was a simple affair? When replacing a car wing meant simply bolting a replacement part in place? When getting a new ignition key involved having one cut rather than programmed?
Well so does Toyota.
The car giant has developed a tiny concept car that owes more to a child’s toy like Lego than it does the current crop of high-tech city cars; the Toyota Camatte can be broken down and re-assembled as a car that looks completely different.
The parts that can be interchanged include the major body panels, the clamshell that combines the doors and roof as well as the lights, tyres and rear seats.
Why aren’t all city cars this small?
It sounds counter intuitive, but cars are at the same time becoming heavier and more fuel efficient. Advances in engine technology mean that even though cars like the VW Golf and Mini grow in size and weight each time a new model is launched, cars are in general using less fuel. Cars have become heavier as they’ve grown in size and manufacturers have sought to make them safer, but heavier cars pose an increased risk to pedestrians, cyclists and drivers of lighter cars in the event of a collision.
Very light cars like the electric G-Wizz are classed as quadricycles – four-wheeled vehicles with an unladen mass not more than 400kg. They are designed to operate in urban areas at low speeds. The fact quadricycles are lighter than conventional cars makes them less of a risk to pedestrians and less damaging to the road surface. And co
According to Government figures, Greater Manchester has an average traffic speed of 12.1mph, Leicester 13.6mph, London 14.6mph, West Yorkshire 14.6mph, Merseyside 14.9mph, South Yorkshire 15mph and the West Midlands 15.5mph (Road Statistics 2008: Traffic, Speeds and Congestion).
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