A look at the Nissan IMs Concept
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We have the AMC Eagle to thank for the modern crossover. Somehow, automakers never seem to mention that high-riding, wood-paneled wagon in their acceptance speeches. But throw on suicide doors and a giant glass roof, whittle the edges, and remove the sealed-beam halogens, and you get a radical future, as imagined by this Nissan IMs concept at the Detroit auto show.
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With its notchback body and tall ride height, the IMs shares a modern connection to swoopy four-doors like the Audi A7.
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Nissan calls it an "elevated sports sedan." We might call it a Maxima Cross Country, after the now departed Volvo S60 with the lift kit. But the key word is “sedan.”
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That's the style that Detroit's Big Three swear everyone has abandoned, when in fact, a stylish, fast, and well-appointed sedan is what many people continue to buy. And that's exactly what the Nissan IMs promises to be.
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It's especially intriguing since the Sentra and Maxima are the next Nissans in line to receive major updates.
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As an evolution of the 2017 IMx concept, the IMs is fully automated and electric. A 115.0-kWh battery and two motors provide all-wheel drive, 483 horsepower, 590 lb-ft of torque, and a theoretical 380 miles of range.
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The steering wheel retracts and the car's exterior lighting glows blue to alert pedestrians in case the driver is asleep or playing poker with the passengers.
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It has side cameras in place of mirrors, big screens, and even bigger 22-inch rims. That's the trendy stuff automakers copy-paste from each other.
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There's plenty of room to stretch. The IMs's wheelbase is three inches longer than Nissan's roomiest sedan, the 2019 Altima (the older Maxima is tighter).
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It's also one inch wider, two inches higher, and three inches shorter overall.
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The most intricate design comes from an instrument panel that resembles a miniature foot bridge. Hidden and illuminated behind the dash screens, Nissan replicated kumiko, the Japanese woodcraft of elaborate geometric patterns, as 3D-printed trusses supporting the instrument panel.
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The innovation is the central rear seat, a one-plus-two layout where the "king," as Nissan describes the driver, can recline as his subjects dote on him from every angle.
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That includes the front passengers, whose seats pivot inward during autonomous mode. Picture a McLaren F1 outfitted like a high-end French living room with gold accents, which is something Carlos Ghosn is certainly picturing at this very moment.
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On the glass roof, the IMs etches more Japanese patterns, called asanoha, that resemble the hemp plant. These are warm, physical touches in a cabin that doesn't prioritize pixels.
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They can be summoned, weirdly, with what Nissan calls Invisible-to-Visible technology. During a demo at the CES technology, Nissan showed the entire windshield displaying augmented reality and then projected an avatar in the passenger seat, as though someone Skyping could join you for a long drive.
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But for pure style, the IMs is the welcome breath of fresh air Nissan needs to inject into boring sedans like the Sentra, a model we've found to have too much in common with Cream of Wheat. Now that would be radical.
Nissan
The sedan isn't dead, it's elevating.