Best of the rest: Toyota's concept cars that could point to future models like the next RAV4 and a new sports car

The 2023 Japan Mobility Show carries on, but the flurry of reveals and unveilings and announcements has somewhat subsided. And the world’s biggest car manufacturer, Toyota, was very very busy indeed.

We’ve covered the LandCruiser Se, EPU ute and the Toyota HiAce BEV concepts, but Toyota seems to have shown up to the Japan Mobility Show with about seven million concepts ranging from sports cars to a literal space exploration buggy.

Here are the highlights of Toyota’s extensive presence at the Japan Mobility Show.

FT-3e electric SUV

A next-gen RAV4? That’s the hint, small as it is, Toyota is leaving us with for this concept that’s about the same size and specifically boasts “head clearance comparable to that of the RAV4”. It’s 1595mm tall, but has a 3000mm wheelbase.

Toyota President and CEO Koji Sato said in his presentation to media, while flanked by the FT-3e and the next car in this list, “making cars with both a low centre of gravity and a spacious interior… was not possible in the past” suggesting the brand will take advantage of EV platform architecture for all of its models.

According to Sato, while “the Lexus brand will first produce cars that tell this story”, it makes sense for the parent company to optimise one of its most popular models as much as possible.

A RAV4 with a lower centre of gravity and the same spacious interior is surely on Toyota’s to-do list.

FT-Se sports car concept

Toyota’s ‘MR2 revival’ seems to have gotten a little lost in the rush to fawn over Mazda’s Iconic SP concept - the rotary one, you saw it - but this little Toyota has been teased for a long, long time.

The return of the MR2 is something Japanese media has predicted for years, with the latest possibilities being either a hybrid or full-BEV sports car in the spirit of the original mid-engine model.

In the FT-Se, the driver sits in a ‘wrap-around’ cockpit where their knees rest on pads “that relieve lateral Gs” and its wheel is flanked by touchscreens for controls as seen in Toyota and Lexus’ other concepts this year.

X-Van Gear concept

Toyota Auto Body, a section of the company that deals in commercial vehicles like the HiAce, has also brought a couple of fun concepts - this one being the X-Van Gear - and it looks ready for some outdoor adventuring.

Our journalists on the ground at the Japan Mobility Show say it has ‘Tarago vibes’ but its design has a little SUV about it too.

The X-Van features front and rear sliding doors making access to its three rows easier, while inside the front passenger seat can turn around to join the rest of the van, as the middle row folds down to become a table.

Vellfire Spacious Lounge

Based on the current Toyota Vellfire, this ‘Spacious Lounge’ concept takes a page out of the Lexus LM book and turns a six-seater van into a four-seat affair, with ample space for the rear passengers to travel in first-class style.

Land Hopper, JUU wheelchair and Space Mobility buggy

These aren’t cars, but Toyota really took the full ‘mobility’ approach here. And part of it is pretty embarrassing for some automotive media - specifically the Land Hopper, which did not in fact turn out to be a smaller version of the LandCruiser, but something far smaller.

Toyota trademarked the name at the same time it’s developing a smaller version of its off-road veteran, leading many to believe that was the name for it - instead, it’s been used for an electrified bike.

And, yes, we can admit that missed connection was made here on CarsGuide too.

Along with that, Toyota has to some extent reinvented the wheelchair with the ‘JUU’ which enables users “to freely navigate places that are difficult to access by electric or regular wheelchairs”.

It allows the chair to traverse stairs, for example, with a “retractable tail [that] flips down from behind the backrest to prevent tipping”.

And, perhaps taking the theme a step further than necessary for 2023, is the Space Mobility which offers “mobility for use on the moon and in outer space” for all your “safe, reliable driving” need even when faced with “unforgiving extraterrestrial environments”.

Don’t you hate it when you’re stuck in an unforgiving extraterrestrial environment?