Making its debut at the 2010 Beijing Motor Show, the Chevrolet Volt MVP5 concept fuses design elements like headlights, taillights and grille from the original Volt. Its five-door hatch body style then will be derived from Orlando.  Sounds like a good combination, isn’t it?

As for its interior, this vehicle is designed to have dual LCD displays on its dashboard for navigation and other entertainment purposes.

The Chevrolet Volt MVP 5 is also conceptualized to have 5 seats with a cargo space at the back measuring 30.5 cubic feet. This is good for those who travel and always carry large luggage with them.

Source: AutoBlog.com

With its hybrid model coming in 2011, the new Hyundai i-Flow concept is making a buzz among auto enthusiast. It features a streamlined flowing made of high-quality materials combined with techie gadgets like a thermo-electric generator and an adjustable solar panel roofing.

Focusing on its “fluidic design,” this coupe promises aerodynamic efficiency and projects that it will reduce CO2 emissions by 85 g/km.

Let us take a look now on its cool and techie-looking interior. Check out this car’s dashboard treated with Elastoskin, a sprayed skin.

And take a glimpse of its ultramodern and lightweight seats.

Source: Hyundai via CarBodyDesign.com

Introduced at the 2010 Chicago Auto Show, the 2011 Honda Odyssey concept modified its structure resulting to a sleeker appearance. Doing so, Honda promises that this will not lessen this minivan’s practicality.

With the current Odyssey fuel mileage pegged 17 mpg at city and 25 mpg at highway, Honda is expecting that with this concept will increase to 19 mpg and 28 mpg respectively.

As for its interiors, Honda promises that there will be more room for 2nd and 3rd row occupants with 3 child seats in the 3rd row. Well, here are some sneak shots of its interiors.

Source: CarandDriver.com

At the 2010 Detroit Auto Show, Toyota aroused the interest of many car enthusiasts in its introduction of the FT-CH concept. It is a vehicle conceptualized by Toyota’s European Design Center in Nice, France. Makers hope that this and some technological innovations will attract young customers when they introduced this model in 2012.

This FT-CH model is part of the company’s effort to provide consumers with wide-ranging variety of full hybrids, in addition to its plug-in hybrids (PHVs) and battery electrics (EVs) to be also introduced in 2012, and its hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCHVs) in 2015 in global markets.

Refer to the pictures and see how the FT-CH gives its passenger maximum comfort and interior roominess, with a creative sense of style. See the pictures and judge for yourself.

The designers also hope that this design would give its consumers a lively 8-bit generation resemblance. See how savvy it is in these pictures.

Source: CarBodyDesign

One of the cars presented in the 2010 Detroit Auto Show is the Volkswagen New Compact Coupe. This is a concept car that features a well-proportioned design resembling the Audi model line-up with an efficient hybrid drivetrain with a 7-speed DSG.

This hybrid can travel at the speed of 141 mph and accelerates to 60 in 8.1 sec. Its fuel efficiency is high reaching 45 mpg.

It has a savvy interior that is well laid out and cleanly detailed. See the pictures for references.

Source: Volkswagen via CarBodyDesign

It takes a Danish-based company to actually get the concept of a sports car right, would think that other car manufacturer’s from all over world would know how to make, granted they’ve done it before. But so far, the big boys have been missing the point entirely.  Yes there’s a recession going but sometimes it’s good to go back to the basics.  No fancy schmancy fluff like them floating seats, hackneyed design concepts or lame attempts at reinventing the wheel.  You see, sports cars are made to be fast, mean-looking and a joy to drive.  Really, how hard is that? You can make an argument about the car’s specs and whatnot, but really automobile business, at the end of the day, if you get the last two right, your consumer couldn’t care less if his/her ride is half a second slower than the competition. So kudos to Zenvo and it’s ST1 so far for simply going with what seems to be  a classic, no frills, kickass sports car.

[Source: Car Body Design]

There’s something to be said about intuitive and ground breaking design, and there’s also a lot tha can be said about design that’s just nice to look at.  Successful cars usually fall on either one of these categories, but it is the select few, the classics that somehow capture the essence of both design philosophies.   There many people who claim they can tell you, exactly which and what cars can do this, and even come up with awards for them.  With that in mind, does it really give a car manufacturer the excuse to put a $1.75 Million (or £1.2 million) price tag on your little snowflake?  Aston Martin seems to believe that yes, it sure does.

The Aston Martin One-77 debuts in Concorso d'Eleganza, Villa d'Este, Gaydon, Warwickshire

The Aston Martin One-77 was unveiled to the public simultaneous to its winning the Concorso d’Eleganza design award in Warwickshire, England, which we didn’t even know existed.  Probably a society thing in the UK. If that’s not high brow enough for you, it was held in the Villa d’Este, which is probably one of them fancy British hotels that we will never ever visit in this lifetime.  A quick look at this supercar concept will probably give you an idea as to why that just happened.

Nice sleek design and... stitches!? Must be going for the "hand-made" look

There’s really little that can be said about the exterior, and no, it’s not because this blog is only interested in the interiors, but come on look at it, it looks great and sporty.  A supercar that doesn’t even have those two prerequisites has auto fail on it.  Moving on however, the interior is really a little conundrum in a sense that we like it.  Monochrome pallete, leather all around, nice little metal here and there, a futuristic-looking center console which seems to be all the rage nowadays. But the stitches… while exuding that “hand-made” feel just looks a bit… tacky. It might be possible that the finished product will look different, but we’re not really keen on getting rid of the stitches just yet, executed properly it we feel it could give a lot more character than say… adding overpriced crystals on the damn thing.

Oooh... what does this button do?

Overall, the insides of the Aston Martin One-77 does look like the bastard child of luxury car (say, a Rolls Royce) and a sports car (say a Ferrari) but it works. Much can be improved on the seating design, but you have to give props to Aston Martin for at least trying to not use generic black leather seating in this one.  The details as to what else can be found inside this award-winning concept are scarce, so until then, we’ll reserve judgment on whether or not it really is worth the hefty $1.75 million.

The One-77's Interior is confused little thing, but it's lovely

[Source: Jalopnik]

Car concepts are fun in a “what the hell where they smoking?” kind of way.  Although we get a few gems from time to time, it seems a vast majority of them have some sort of sci-fi hard on that leaves most motorist either staring with their mouths wide open or scratching their head, there is of course, the rare kind that happens to do both at the same time, and that’s where the Nissan Qazana comes in.

Either Nissan’s engineers are big fans of speed racer or maybe they had just love futuristic B-movie style on their concepts, or they have a winning idea on hand.  Really, the Qazana is as baffling as it’s name. Look at it, look at that name, how do you even pronounce it? Ka-za-na? Sounds like a rejected 80s hair band female protagonist.  Yes, you heard, it’s feminine, despite looking more like futuristic war SUV.

The girliness doesn’t end with the exterior, oh no.  The hot red interior renders doesn’t help its cause.  This is probably what people thought off when the Toyota Echo first unveiled their interior shots.  But you know what? Girly or whatever, it actually looks like a viable design.  Heck the entire  car looks like it could work.  Of course, red leather is just so vintage and somehow, someway, the Nissan Qazana makes it work in a modern way.

Oh you mean they designed it after a motorcycle? Wait, interior? motorcycle? HOW DOES THAT WORK!? Kidding aside, the interior looks sporty yet cozy, probably giving you the “joy to ride feel”.  And this whole floating seats thing is turning into a trend.  Also, the entire interior just feels so… rubbery, like a pimpin’ caddy back in the 50’s.

Other than that, most of everything is standard fare, high-tech central touch screen for GPS, sounds, other gadgets. Probably controls to whatever new element they’ve added. Maybe Internet? How cares really. At this point in time everyone’s just distracted at just how red the inside is.

Yes its got a kooky name, but it’s also a compact crossover that doesn’t look too ridiculous and is aesthetically pleasing to the eye.  So maybe Nissan was right about saying that the design ideas behind the Qazana may be what the car of the future will be like, maybe not.  But at the very least, the Qazana looks like one of the few viable concepts to come out for a long time.

So here’s the deal Nissan, you make this happen, and maybe just maybe, you’ll make at least one car-loving enthusiast happy.

[Source: ZerCustoms]

Seems like General Motors and Opel have decided to finally get there act together a bit.  Finally deciding to act on the demands of consumers by providing a viable fuel-saving vehicle that could save many a motorist precious little Benjamins (or Euros).  Enter the 2011 Opel Ampera, which is so revolutionary that it’s probably the most viable electric car… wait, another electric car!? What is it with this whole electric thing anyway, ever since the 90’s some company keeps coming up with one that’s suppose to revolutionize the industry.  So does the aptly named Ampera (see, it’s a pun! Amp! electricty!) succeed where many have failed (miserably) before?

So the Chevy Volt-based Ampera boasts of this thing called Voltec technology which basically means you get more mileage-per-juice (did we just invent a new unit of measurement?) which has been the downfall of electric cars ever since the damn things were invented.  Basically, you get 60 km from the car’s lithium-ion battery, which ain’t bad.  But what’s interesting is that this baby is self-charging, or rather will be charged by the combustion engine. Probably that characteristic effectively qualifies it as a hybrid. Exciting no? Well, now that you know that the Ampera is supercharged to drive… the question is, what does this five-door four-seater have in store on the inside? It’s got to be something majore right?

Right?

Wait, that’s it?

So the Opel Ampera, for all it’s electricity-ness has absolutely nothing to say about the interior? Fine. We’ll bite.  Despite all the focus on this here EE-LEK-TRAW-NIKS, Opel has little or nothing to say about the interior other than the renders.  That’s all well and good, since when did those car makers ever focus on interiors (which explains the lack of decent updates lately) but come on! Really GM, Opel? Nothing?  Sure it’s nice, but it’s just render, nevermind that the red accents on the door is a nice touch, but that’s it?

You know what? Nevermind, granted the 2011 Opel Ampera will be in official production 2 years from now, we can probably wait a little bit more to find out what “The Most Electrifying Euro Car”  has in store inside.  Rest assured we’ll try to be there when that update comes.

[Source: Jalopnik]

Word on the street is Audi may actually bring back the Q5 Hybrid back in production.  The whispers started in the Detroit Auto Show when an Audi representative was quoted that Audi needs a hybrid release to remain competitive this year.   So why is this significant?  Well, for starters, hybrids are slowly but surely becoming a viable option as more and more car makers are building their own line of hybrids.  Also, more fuel efficient vehicles may be a better investment than say… supercar concepts that may not even see the light of day and are simply money sinks for companies looking for some geeks to oogle that borderline ridiculous concepts.

Either way, the Q5 Hybrid also happens to have a really nice interior.  Well, ok, maybe it’s nothing spectacular, but that’s what so great about compact hybrids like the Prius: nothing fancy, just a smooth and sleek design that shouts out comfort and an enjoyable drive.  Now, if only Audi can do away with those brown accents….

[Source: World Car Fans]