We have the iPod, iMac, iTunes, iPhone…. but who is going to develop the first iCar? Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Honda, Mazda, Isuzu (they have a slight advantage there, there name begins with the holy grail “i”), Daihatsu or are the honours going to go to a foreign auto-maker?
Also, what sort of vehicle is it going to be?
First of all, I am quite sure it will not be developed by the major automakers, so you will not see an iToyota or it’s potential “i” offspring (iPrius, iCamry, iLandcruiser etc), nor any iNissan (iGTR, iMaxima) etc. The Apple branding traditionally is more rebellious than to allow a typical car maker to take the iCar title, it would have to be some company or group more radical than that.
Also, the car itself would have to be more radical than just a hybrid or electrical car. It would need to be technology un-thought of by the major car companies. It needs to be greener than that. And although anything tagged with “i” tends to double its actual value, it still needs to be cheap enough to benefit the whole world, iCar needs to get out there to the whole world.
Well, it is still unknown who the iCar winner will be but if I had to award the iCar crown to anyone right now, it would probably be handed to the HHO specialists. A grass roots, (for some reason major car companies do not want to get involved (probably because you can apply the system to any vehicle on the roads at the moment and therefore doesn’t involve selling any “new cars”)) green development, birthed not out of potential profit but the real need to improve on our present status quo in automobile world.
That would also mean any car sold in the used car auctions in Japan, could also become your potential “iCar”, with a few cheap modifications.
