It's Made Of Wood! Its An EV! It's The Toyota Setsuna
PREQUEL Wooden Cars and Cars and Wood
Toyota to Debut the Setsuna Concept Car at Milan Design Week
Toyota City, Japan, Mar, 04 2016; Next month, Toyota will make a fittingly stylish first appearance at Milan
Design Week(1) by debuting the Setsuna, an attractive new concept car made
primarily of wood.
The decision to use wood - a material that is
durable yet prone to change over time - reflects Toyota's efforts to give
form to the developing relationships between people and their cars. The
Setsuna symbolizes how cars undergo a gradual transformation over the
years, as if absorbing the aspirations, memories, and emotions of multiple
generations of a family. With the Setsuna concept, Toyota is expressing the
notion that, as a family accrues time and experiences together with their
car, lovingly caring for it and passing it on to the next generation, that
car will acquire a new type of value that only the members of that family
can appreciate.
The car's name - Setsuna, meaning "moment" in
Japanese - was chosen to reflect that people experience precious, fleeting
moments together with their cars. Toyota believes that, over time, these
collective moments make their cars irreplaceable to their owners.
To
embody this concept, Toyota picked a variety of distinctive types of wood
for different parts of the car, including the exterior panels(2), frame,
floor, and seats. Wood provides uniquely appealing characteristics that are
not offered in conventional cars: it can last for many generations if
properly taken care of and it also changes in coloration and texture in
response to its environment (particularly temperature and humidity) and
conditions of use, taking on a unique character and depth.
Kenji
Tsuji, the Toyota engineer overseeing development of the Setsuna, said of
his process: "We evaluated various ways to express the concept and selected
different lumber materials for specific applications, such as Japanese
cedar for the exterior panels and Japanese birch for the frame. We also
paid particular attention to the sizes and arrangements of individual
parts. For the assembly structure, we adopted a traditional Japanese
joinery technique called okuriari(3) which does not use any nails or
screws. The completed body line of the Setsuna expresses a beautiful curve
reminiscent of a boat. We would also like the viewer to imagine how the
Setsuna will gradually develop a complex and unique character over the
years. The car includes a 100-year meter that will keep time over
generations, and seats that combine functional beauty with the gentle hue
of the wood."
Main specifications Overall length 3,030 mm Overall width 1,480 mm Overall height 970 mm Wheelbase 1,700 mm Seating capacity 2 Powertrain Electric motor Outline of Toyota exhibition at Milan Design Week Duration Media day April 11 (11:00 - 18:00) Public days April 12 - 17 (11:00 - 21:00) Venue Via Tortona 31, Milan(1) The world's largest design exhibition, held in Milan, Italy. Furniture manufacturers and fashion brands hold various events to highlight the uniqueness of their products. It is also called Salone del Mobile, Milano.
(2) The exterior panels of the car were developed jointly with Sumitomo Forestry Co., Ltd.
(3) A joinery method used when making beams and lintels.
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