Nissan Round Box

The Nissan Round Box is a concept car that Nissan unveiled at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show, alongside the Pivo 2, NV200 and Intima concepts. It was imagined as a car for young people who carpool, built so that all four occupants have an equal share of entertainment and conversation, an idea Nissan took from the relaxed mood of sports bars. The company also wrote the name in text-message style as RD/BX. The body is divided into a wide lower platform with protruding bumpers and a separate passenger compartment, with the wheels pushed to the corners, a roof that folds in three parts into the trunk, and small windows low in the doors for looking at the road surface. A pair of screens called Play Catch lets passengers send route information to the driver, controlled by joystick-like levers in the door armrests copied from the earlier Urge concept. Power was a turbocharged direct-injection petrol engine with a continuously variable transmission, and magazines reacted with mixed reviews.