The Chrysler Akino is a

concept car A concept car (also known as a concept vehicle or show vehicle) is a car made to showcase new styling or new technology. Concept cars are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or may not ...

created by

Chrysler FCA US, LLC, Trade name, doing business as Stellantis North America and known historically as Chrysler ( ), is one of the "Big Three (automobile manufacturers), Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn H ...

. The Akino was first shown at the 2005

Tokyo Motor Show The , called (TMS) until 2023, is a biennial auto show held in October–November at the Tokyo Big Sight, Tokyo, Japan for cars, motorcycles and commercial vehicles. Hosted by the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA), it is a recog ...

. It was designed at Chrysler's Pacifica Studio in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

and was named after the designer of the

, Akino Tsuchiya.

Design

The Akino was a design concept, as its engine was not tested. It was designed as a modern,

one-box design The configuration of a car body is typically determined by the layout of the engine, passenger and luggage compartments, which can be shared or separately articulated. A key design feature is the car's roof-supporting pillars, designated from fro ...

for a

subcompact car Subcompact car is a North American Car classification, classification for cars smaller than a compact car. It is broadly equivalent to the B-segment (Europe), supermini (Great Britain) or A0-class (China) classifications. According to the Unite ...

. It only had one door on the driver's side and two doors on the passenger's side, with the rear passenger door being a

suicide door A suicide door is an Car door, automobile door hinged at its rear rather than the front. Such doors were originally used on Horse-drawn vehicle, horse-drawn carriages but are rarely found on modern vehicles, primarily because they are less saf ...

. Inside, it had 4 seats and a

trunk Trunk may refer to: Biology * Trunk (anatomy), synonym for torso * Trunk (botany), a tree's central superstructure, and the stem of woody plants * Trunk of corpus callosum, in neuroanatomy * Elephant trunk, the proboscis of an elephant Comput ...

that opened upwards like most

hatchback A hatchback is a car body style, car body configuration with a rear door that swings upward to provide access to the main interior of the car as a cargo area rather than just to a separated trunk. Hatchbacks may feature fold-down second-row sea ...

s. The passenger doors opened up in opposite directions, much like the

Honda Element The Honda Element is a crossover SUV, compact crossover SUV manufactured by Honda and marketed in North America over a single generation for model years 2003–2011 — and noted for its boxy exterior styling with bi-parting side doors and i ...

. The roof also featured an interlocking form which could give out more headroom. The interior of the Akino featured swiveling front seats, both natural and recyclable synthetic fabrics, bamboo flooring, a throw rug and pillows, and mood lighting.

References

Akino Front-wheel-drive vehicles Cars introduced in 2005 Subcompact cars Hatchbacks

External links

The Akino at ConceptCarz.comTokyo Motor Show 2005 Highlights for Car Design News (Including the Akino)
{{Chrysler