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Tokyo Motor Show 2013 preview guide

Next week is a busy week in the world of international motor shows, as both the LA Motor Show 2013 and Tokyo Motor Show 2013 kick off with press days on 20-21 November. MSN Cars will on the ground at both shows – but here are the cars and concepts that already have us excited about the Tokyo event. The Tokyo Motor Show is Japan’s premier motoring salon, and is located at the Tokyo Big Sight exhibition centre, 3-11-1 Ariake, Koto-ku, Tokyo.

Infiniti EV put on hold to concentrate on volume sales

An Infiniti EV based on the Nissan LEAF (previewed by the LE Concept above) have been put on hold Nissan’s luxury arm, Infiniti, is on a global push to try and make inroads in to the dominance of Lexus in the luxury Japanese car arena, and has ambitious plans to be selling 500,000 cars a year by 2017. But Infiniti sold only a third of that total in 2012, so any chance of hitting the lofty target of 500k cars in the next five years means they must concentrate on volume cars, not niche cars like a Nissan LEAF based EV. That means the LEAF-based Infiniti LE EV Concept we saw at the New York Auto Show in 2012 will stay as a concept for the foreseeable future as Infiniti boss, Johan de Nysschen, seeks volume cars that will push the brand forward and bring proper sales numbers.

Rimac Concept_One Electric Supercar Salon Prive debut

The very impressive Rimac Concept_One electric hypercar, which debuted at Frankfurt 2011, is to show at Salon Prive. Now the Goodwood Festival of Speed  is over for another year, the next big petrolhead event is Salon Prive – which has been pushed back to September to avoid clashing with London 2012 – and Mate Rimac has announced his Rimac_One electric hypercar will be making its UK debut on the lawns of Syon Park. The Mitac_One, which was revealed at the Frankfurt Motor Show last year and conceived by precocious 24yr old Mate Rimac,  is a technological tour de force for electric cars, offering four electric motors – one on each wheel – which can accelerate and decelerate independently to offer true four wheel vectoring and stunning handling.