Visteon e-Bee All A Nissan Leaf Could Be

One of the things I look forward to most in the world of alternative energy cars is when we’ll have tuners for them. We’ve already seen HyMotion turn a Prius into an efficient plug-in hybrid, PHEV and stories float around on how some have modified their Tesla Roadsters. So far special garages that tweak electric cars and PHEV to deliver more are not a reality yet.

Visteon Shows its e-Bee. Visteon, a leading automotive global supplier decided to show all a Nissan Leaf could be. The concept car, dubbed the e-Bee has a few interesting take on the future. While most of the features center upon car-sharing capability in 2020, it focuses on allowing drivers to adapt the e-Bee to their personal driving habits. Hat tip Gizmag.

Starting with the obvious, the first thing you want to do is personalize your ride. What do you spend the most looking at when driving, besides the road? The dashboard and its instrument panel layout. By using a cloud based solution to store a user’s unique settings, drivers can change the feel of the dashboard. By changing the look, color and even the layout of the instrumentation, a driver would make the e-Bee his momentarily personalized car.

How many times do you sit in your favorite car but wish the tachometer was slightly to the left, right, or even further up and down? The problem with most cars is that they are mass produced to appeal to as wide an audience as possible, which means it won’t please everyone but works for all. By allowing drivers to personalize a car, Visteon shows how a car-sharing system could gain a lot of popularity, especially within that 20 year old bracket that doesn’t seem to care much whether they own a car or not. Car-sharing for this generation would make perfect sense and would continue their seamless online experience from home to final destination via a car fully connected that “remembers” how this individual likes it to be. By simply plopping their Smartphone in, the car becomes an extension of you ever-connected life.

How It Works. Using 3 instrument panels, two are touchscreens enabled conveniently located on either side of the steering wheel, control information, settings and of course the ever-important social media connections are displayed making a driver right at home. The center console is a head-down projected main screen with most of the important information, speed, etc. Let’s do away once and for all with the rear-view mirror, shall we? How about using a more modern video displaying a real-time, 180-degree rear-view camera?

What About Physical Stuff? By now, you might be saying that this is all fine and to some extent certain cars allow you to tweak the look and feel of their display. This is where Visteon goes a step further by allowing you to change the actual physical look and feel of the interior of the car. By using clip-on modules, for instance cup holders would appear or disappear. Various wireless charging devices could be snapped in, as well as different cameras to increase overall visibility. Since we are in a near-future dreamland, why not have each seat equipped with its own personal climate control system? All of this would be done using controls on the door panels where each occupant could control their personal space.

And now, for the cherry on top! Ever wonder what to do with those pesky stinky passengers who happen to come onboard? Fear no more, Visteon’s e-Bee has thought this through. With its HVAC system, the e-Bee allows for a gentle air diffusing a fragrance for those passenger harboring dubious odors. But my favorite part has to be something we all wish our cars would have now, a cooled rear grocery storage box so that your frozen items don’t melt before you get home.

Visteon’s e-Bee is a glimpse of how the company sees the future of mobility and we can be sure some of its ingenious systems will make its way onto our everyday cars... at some point.