Toyota i-Tril Concept Shows Company's Vision For 2030, Has Three Seats

If you are our age, you probably think that 2030 is a long way from today, but people are going to clink their glasses together on New Year’s Eve 2030 in just 13 years.

This aspect makes the i-Tril Concept, an exhibit that had its world premiere at the 2017 Geneva Motor Show, even more spectacular.

In a way, this small vehicle has a shot of becoming a reality, because nobody can predict what kind of cars will we get in 2030. A brief look of the automobiles launched in 2004 shows that we have some crazy designs on the table today, but nothing that outlandish when compared to the concepts that were revealed back then.

Evidently, this could all change by then, but Toyota has a few ideas on how things could go down for their urban models.

Toyota’s conception of the car of the city for 2030 is an electric vehicle with autonomous driving capabilities, but one that still lets humans drive it. The seating configuration is a one-plus-two, which means that the “driver” sits in the front, and his or her passengers are placed behind, in a set of parallel seats.

If you look twice at this concept, you will suddenly develop an admiration for Renault, who already offer an electric quadricycle on the market. However, the Renault Twizy only has two seats, and it must be ordered with plastic covers instead of windows. Both have butterfly doors, which seems to be the norm for this kind of vehicle.

In spite of those differences, Renault’s product is surprisingly close to Toyota’s i-Tril Concept, which shows how two design studios imagined the car of the city in 2030. Toyota’s creation weighs about 1,300 pounds (600 kg), and it is nine feet and three inches long (2,830 millimeters).

Unlike the Twizy, for example, the i-Tril can lean by up to 10 degrees to improve stability. Its electric drivetrain has an estimated range of 124 miles (200 kilometers), which is enough for a daily commute through any modern city.