Toyota thinks this focus-grouped curiosity is the electric vehicle young people want

It’s the Geneva Motor Show and new car concepts are being unveiled left and right. Electric vehicles account for a significant number of those new concepts to the point that Toyota, which is known for betting on hydrogen fuel cells and its hacked up Prius Prime over EVs is also debuting a new electric concept.

The Japanese automaker says that it commissioned the new vehicle called ‘i-Tril’ from its French design studio in collaboration with the company’s ED² design studio in Nice based on research on the company’s younger demographic.

While President of Toyota Europe Johan Van Zyl simply said that they were targeting young people, the company was actually much more specific in a press release. They claim to have developed the vehicle with “a new type of customer in mind: a sophisticated, single, 30-50 year old active female with two children and a vibrant lifestyle.”

That’s who the i-Trill is supposed to appeal to. So if you don’t like the vehicle, it’s probably because you are not “a sophisticated, single, 30-50 year old active female with two children and a vibrant lifestyle.”

Nevermind the weirdly specific target demographic and let’s stick with Van Zyl’s more appropriate reference to a “younger demographic”. It’s kind of worrying that Toyota would think this is the kind of vehicle young people want (and that young people are 30-50):

“We asked our designers and engineers to get out of their offices and go observe our target younger audience and then answer: what future generations expect from us? The team worked hard, met, discuss, and challenged each other. And this is their answer. “

A 3-seater EV with ~200 km (~124 miles) of range that Toyota sees as “a viable alternative to A and B segment cars, other EV products, public transport and motorcycles.”

What about a battery-powered version of any of Toyota’s other A and B segment cars? Or what about another RAV4 EV for the love of… Instead, we get what looks like a mix between Toyota’s i-Road concept and Renault’s Twizy.

“Driven by electric motor power and weighing just 600 kg the i-TRIL is some 2,830 mm long and 1,460 mm high. It features 1,200 mm front and 600 mm rear track widths, with a hinge between the rear axle and cabin allowing the vehicle body and front tyres to lean whilst the motorised rear tyres remain perpendicular to the road surface at all times.”

Anyway, it’s not like we expect the company will ever produce the vehicle, though they did make quite a few of those i-Road prototypes that they have been testing around cities.

But seriously focus group kids, stop punking  Toyota when it comes to electric vehicles.

Here’s Toyota’s presentation starting from the unveiling of the “revolutionary” i-TRIL:

https://youtu.be/NiCicxgVBKY?t=3m43s