The Tokyo Motor Show is opening its doors this week, which means all those mysterious concept cars automakers have been teasing over the last few weeks will finally be revealed in full. As well as a potential concept car previewing the 370Z's belated successor and the new S16 generation Silvia, one of Nissan's headline reveals at this year's Tokyo Motor Show will be an all-electric crossover concept continuing the Japanese automaker's assault on Tesla to make EVs more affordable.
Rumors have suggested it will be based on the new second-generation Leaf, but so far the only glimpse we've had of Nissan's concept SUV is a teaser image showing its sleek silhouette. However, a new video posted by Nissan ahead of the show gives us a better look at the electric SUV before tomorrow's Tokyo reveal without giving too much away.
The teaser clip shows a polystyrene model of the new concept SUV being constructed by 3D sculpting robots, giving new clues about its size and shape. Nissan's electric SUV concept appears to have a sloping coupe-style roofline and a wide front-end with slim headlights and large intakes. Like the new Leaf, it also has a four-sided grille and a similar floating C-pillar, as well as prominent wheel arches. A raked rear window accentuates the concept SUV's aggressive-looking rear-end. Autocar also managed to snap a few photos of the model during a pre-show event. The overall shape looks similar to the Nissan IDS Concept revealed at the 2015 Tokyo Motor Show.
Little else is known about Nissan's electric SUV, but we know it will be all-electric and feature autonomous driving technology. The new Leaf undercut the Tesla Model 3's price by $5,000, so it seems likely that Nissan's electric SUV will be significantly cheaper than the Model X when it goes into production, which should give Nissan an advantage in the EV market. There's a lack of affordable electric SUVs with long ranges right now, so Nissan would do well to capitalize on this demand. We should learn more about Nissan's Leaf-based SUV this week as the Tokyo Motor Show kicks off on October 25.