Honda will show off the Tomo EV concept at the Geneva International Motor Show. The Honda Tomo EV is designed by Honda in collaboration with students from the Instituto Europeo Di Design. The Tomo EV is billed "the ideal means of transportation for young people in the next six years."
Motor 1 reports that 13 students who are taking up a two-year master's program in transportation design at the Instituto Europeo Di Design (IED) in Torino, Italy are helping Honda in developing the Honda Tomo EV concept. The Tomo EV is a thesis project for the 13 students of IED and the concept is based on how they envision mobility in 2025.
The Honda Tomo EV is described as a "convergence of smart devices and personal transport." That being said, it is only logical to assume that the electric vehicle will be filled with more connectivity options that a typical user would need, and then some.
While, understandably, there aren't a lot of details about the Honda Tomo EV yet, Motor Authority revealed that the Tomo concept has a length of 157 inches (399 cm), a width of 74.5 inches (189 cm), and a height of 61 inches (155 cm). The Tomo EV, a miniature electric coupe with a truck bed in the rear, is slightly bigger than the Mazda Miata.
According to Taku Kono, General Manager Styling Design Division at Honda R&D, the Tomo (which means friend in Japanese) concept "was an exciting, constructive journey both for us and the student's thanks to the fusion of the Honda Design philosophy and the creative energy and commitment of the young IED designers."
The 13 student-designers out of IED who helped conceptualize the Honda Tomo EV are Ricardo Alejandro Campos Ortega, Rudraksh Banerjie, Tanmay Madhukar Chavan, Michele Corneliani, Shobhanjit Das, Alexander Marcel Fröse, Xiaole Ge, Ramón Emmanuel Hernández Cortés, Tianchen Huang, Sameer Aminullah Khan, Saketh Nalla, Jay Shrikant Nibandhe, and Yu-Jie Wang. According to Autoblog, the exterior of the Tomo EV is based on Campos Ortega design while the interior is based on Banerhie's design.
Meanwhile, the Japanese automaker Honda announced that it will start taking orders in Europe for the Urban EV concept in early 2019. According to Philip Ross, senior vice president for Honda Motor Europe, a production version of the Urban EV will be introduced to Europe in late 2019. It is unclear whether the Urban EV will be available in the United States or Canada.
The 2019 Geneva International Motor Show will kick off on March 5 in Switzerland.
