The 2023 Japan Mobility Show will host all manner of concept cars, but Nissan just fired a brick-shaped bottle rocket at every manufacturer not bringing their A-game by dropping an electric minivan concept that whips an absurd amount of ass. It’s called the Hyper Tourer, which is the coolest concept car name I’ve seen in a long time. I’m sick and tired of the meaningless alphanumerics some marketers with the collective imagination of a root vegetable have whipped up to denote the future of electrification, so kudos to Nissan for taking a stand. And yet, the name of this concept might be the least-interesting part.
This black and gold electric van resplendent in chessboard wheels and halftone fasciae conjures up shades of Nissan’s mid-aughts Garfield-colored crazy period in all the right ways. It’s got a spoiler! The rear wordmark is illuminated! The whole thing looks like a vision of the future from the not-so-distant past in a fascinating way, even if some of the details are properly out there.
In profile, the surfacing makes it look a bit like a toilet roll that’s been compressed sideways, but I reckon that’s alright. There are only so many ways to style a giant box on wheels, and such drama courts a wide variety of takes. To borrow a bit from “Blades Of Glory,” “No one know what it means, but it’s provocative. It gets the people going.”
Without a traditional powertrain to package around, the interior’s a space for designers to get crazy, and crazy has indeed happened here. Alright, so the AI-based system that turns the entire cabin into a mood ring is a bit much, but the swiveling Bond villain seats are dope, and the entire floor is an LED panel that can display a riverbed or a sky, should you wish.
After several years of pulling things together, Nissan is getting bonkers again and I’m all here for it. After all, this is a company with a history of wild-ass vans, some of which were even sold in America. Remember the third-generation Quest, that spaceship-looking minivan sold from 2004 until 2009?
Yes, I’m talking about the one available with a three-panel moonroof, two overhead rear seat entertainment screens, a gauge cluster in the center of the dashboard, and red leather upholstery. In a segment where the Dodge Caravan’s hidden sliding door tracks sparked intrigue, the third-generation Quest was an absolute freak in the best possible way. Sure, its second-row windows didn’t roll down, and early examples may have had teething issues, but the third-generation Quest was a gloriously cool minivan.
The fourth-generation Quest was just as insane because it was a JDM Elgrand minivan sliced long-ways and widened. Sure, its small-overlap crash test results were horrific, and plopping a CVT into a 4,480-pound people hauler was a daft idea, but it’s the closest America’s got to a large JDM minivan since the Toyota Previa.
So, Nissan, can we get whatever production form the Hyper Tourer ends up taking in North America as a Quest? While the last two Quests were a little bit out there, the world is finally ready for maximum minivan lunacy. After all, most of the staid pragmatists who bought mid-aughts Honda Odysseys instead of Quests are empty-nesters now, and the pro-van crowd has grown younger, weirder, and more passionate than ever. I guess for now, we’ll just have to wait for the Japan Mobility Show to roll around, or catch a virtual glimpse of the Nissan Hyper Tourer on that weird radio livestream Nissan launched the other week.
(Photo credits: Nissan)
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Ugh! I can hear the theme song now: Nissan Go Bangles
“In profile, the surfacing makes it look a bit like a toilet roll that’s been compressed sideways” You’ll be hearing from our legal department for disclosing our patented development process.
Generally not a Nissan fan and it’s not really to my personal taste, but good on Nissan for actually designing something provocative and interesting rather than their usual anonymous dreck.
Isn’t Nissan part of Renault and isn’t Citroen part of Stellantis? Because this Nissan sure looks like a Citroen to me.
Oh, and I like it of course!
A. Maz. Ing. Wow. Yes please
Look, I get that 800VDC battery architecture is great for when you have to deal with a flunky who’s failed you for the last time, but then you’re left with a smoking corpse for rest of the road trip. Sigh. It’s always the concessions made to real-life practicalities that leave people wary of concept cars.
“then you’re left with a smoking corpse for rest of the road trip.”
See! You should have sprung for the ejection seat too.
I always dug the Quest, though that era of Nissan scares me, mechanically anyway. The design is pretty batshit crazy, but sometimes that’s a good thing when you’re living the mundanity of van life.
Waiting for our Goth Uncle to break down what we’re seeing here.
That was my first thought too. Second thought actually, first was ‘that is amazing, weird, but amazing’.
This reminds me of Midtown Madness, somehow. I’m guessing it’s the low-poly model. Ah, good memories.
I had a Nissan Quest with the orange basketball interior, center stack, and the crazy sunroofs, and I’d buy another like it in a heartbeat. Same for this thing, it looks awesome.
Came here for this. September 2003 – with 2 little kids, I bought one of the first Quests in town with the wacky sunroof, leather, powerful for the era V6. Other than the TSB for the flaky automatic sliding doors, it treated me well. Was really quite the road trip machine too, with the third row fold flat…. now the kids are all grown up but I could imagine buying something similarly
oddcool.A kindred spirit! If you’re going to get a minivan, might as well get the most interesting one, right?
Ah, yes, goodness knows we could use more of this than all the blandmobiles & StormTroopermobiles out there. As for comparisons to the Cybertruck this is much more of a cohesive design than the CT which just looks…half-assed. And it looks rather Phineas & Ferb-ish with a leavening of Tron. (Ha, three references to Disney IPs in this comment and I don’t have the Disney Channel or even cable.)
If duracell designed a car the would be it!
Wow. I like that, and I wish there was a way to homologate to US specs. Give it a decent range (say, 250 miles) and there would be tons of uses for this in livery and posh transport.
I like it ❤️
I hate tinted windows. I have thumbs, I can put on sunglasses, sunglasses are a lot cheaper than the NVGs I’d need to see through some dark tints at night.
The rear window on the hand me down family car had spent its time in AZ and San Diego and was heavily tinted, at night you couldn’t see anything out the rear window.
Make tinted windows an OPTION, not mandatory. A lot of vehicles look worse with tinted windows and just like sunglasses in the dark they hinder your sight, unlike sunglasses you cannot easily remove the tint, you can roll down some windows but the overwhelming majority of rear windows do not roll down so you’re stuck with piss poor visibility through the rear window.
Yes, you can’t even get optional un-tinted windows. I know it’s because a lot of the window is fake, but they have professional designers that get paid to figure things out. I despise tinted windows. Unless the cars are filled with prostitutes I don’t get the point.
What climate do you live in?
Central California, a few 110 degree days, did I mention that I also like windows that open? I see that I did not. Windows that I can see through that open. That’s all I ask for.
I won’t lie, I like the idea of a funky van, but only if it doesn’t lose the practicality first. I will always prioritize practicality over anything but reliability when shopping for the van, hence why I have never been able to justify a Mazda5. The Quest has always been a troublesome car in terms of reliability, and whenever I have been in the market, the ones for sale left much to be desired. It’s like they handed the designers a kilo of coke and said have fun, so they went crazy instead of going for practical. Would I like 5 sunroofs? Sure, why not, but only if I can stash a sheet of plywood in the back. Do I want a floor that can look like a river? Sounds great, but if it comes at the cost of having a CVT, no thanks. Yes I know this is an EV so no CVT, but still. My point is that crazy only works if you check the other boxes first, and Nissan has ALWAYS failed to check the other boxes.
Who gets the bill for my emergency eye wash, Autopian or Nissan? The Tartan Prancer is better looking.
For some reason the front end, particularly the badging, is giving me Grand Galactic Inquisitor vibes: IGNORE ME!
Now I want one just to reprogram the horn to say, “IGNORE ME!”
Was always curious why the last Quest was so much more obviously JDM-van-shaped than the Sienna or Odyssey. Not enough to, ya know, Google “Nissan Quest” of course, but now I know.
We had a single contrarian family at my school that had a 3rd gen Quest, and I respected the fuck outta his mom. That thing was so cool looking in the mid ’00s. It was an eye-searing copper red, to boot. Every single other family with a minivan had a grey or silver Odyssey and holy shit was that boring.
Also this shit’s fucking ugly, but in the best way.
Ew.
Looks like Kim Jung Un has morphed into a van.
Possibly the only thing that could get me to consider buying a Nissan, if they don’t water it down too much. I guess Canoo is still out there to scratch my weird looking van itch.
This exterior is amazingly, impressively ugly, in a way I didn’t expect to see today.
I like some of the other aspects though, like the LED floor. I imagine a whole genre of TikTok video emerging, with animals being pranked by their jerk owners making the floor turn into different things.
If you could reprogram the flooring, you could have whatever visualizers you’d want. If there’s a rush for legalizing the popular hallucinogen from the 70s, all this van needs is side art, like of a wizard.
Or a unicorn.
Wolves howling a moon.
With vinyls, or side-mounted LCD panels, you could have all of those in rotation. Except with a 2020s spin, obviously.
I’d reprogram the floor to kelly green shag carpeting. All the style, none of the clean up.
I just want a live feed of the pavement under the van
If they did that, putting this in a car based horror movie would be the ultimate product placement.
A wizard, riding a unicorn, accompanied by wolves with glowing eyes and at least two moons/or spaceships. I was around in the 70’s and had an airbrush and a well stocked pharmaceutical cabinet ( that was decorated to resemble a temple, with wizard handles).
I like this van, but as possibly the only person on the planet with “Tales from Topographic Oceans” on a playlist my opinions may be suspect.
Then, for your contemplation:
Wizard on a unicorn accompanied by two wolves howling at least two moons.
Kindly note I spent all of two minutes and zero care in MSPaint. But I think it conveys my intent and your vision well enough to get somebody to briefly think about hitting the like button.
I did not say I was good with an airbrush, bit of blurring and you’re done.
Wow, did I ever just get schooled. I like prog and listen to a fair amount, including Yes – but somehow am completely unfamiliar with this particular album. Just cued it up on Youtube to listen to now, and thank you!
“Tales from Topographic Oceans”?
‘Yes’?
Never heard of them.
*gives it a listen on commute home*
Wow! Well now there are a few of us on the planet. Good stuff.
Don’t want to see a single Cyber Truck hater tell me how nice this looks!
Suddenly the Cybertruck is a model of good taste and restraint.
Lexus called. They want their grille back.
I figured a Lexus slammed into the back, the way it’s folded in.
Predator hungry!
The current Nissan corporate face does nothing for me, but edging towards Lexus/previous generation Crown is not the answer. The latest version of the JDM Serena minivan’s grille/bumper is getting weirdly Lexusy.
https://www-asia.nissan-cdn.net/content/dam/Nissan/jp/vehicles/serena/2211/exterior/top/serena_2211_exterior_pc_0007.jpg.ximg.l_12_h.smart.jpg