Honda P-NUT

By Dan Strong

02nd December 2009

The stars were out in force as the Los Angeles Motor Show opened its doors last week – and topping the bill was Honda’s radical vision of a futuristic city car, the Personal-Neo Urban Transport, or P-NUT for short.

The coupé-style three-door, which was styled by British designer Andy Foster, could point the way to a new sub-Jazz urban runabout. At 3.4 metres long,
it’s slightly smaller than a Citroen C1.

A versatile cabin layout places the driver centrally, with two passenger seats behind providing generous legroom. These rear chairs fold out of the way to boost storage capacity. The triangular windscreen, which extends into the roof and all the way to the rear, doubles as a head-up display for the navigation system and reversing camera.

The car is rear-wheel drive with the engine bay directly above the back axle, and it has been designed to fit a variety of potential powertrains. These might include a small conventional engine, hybrid system, or battery-electric unit. “Our objective was to explore a new type of small vehicle that overcomes many of the obstacles for existing microcar designs,” said the firm’s US development boss, Dave Marek.

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