TOYOTA ME.WE nominated for 2014 Designs of the Year

You can help make ME.WE a winner

Remember our fun-loving TOYOTA ME.WE concept that debuted last year at our special showroom on the Champs-Élysées in Paris? Well, the ME.WE has just been nominated for the 2014 Designs of the Year Awards by London’s Design Museum. Click through the break to find out more about the award and how you can help make it a winner.

The London Design Museum’s prestigious prize showcases the very best in cutting-edge design and innovation over the past year – with the ME.WE represented in the Transport category.

The innovative ME.WE concept car is the result of a partnership between Toyota European Design & Development (ED2) and Jean-Marie Massaud, the renowned industrial designer acclaimed creatively for his visionary projects in design and architecture.

“Anti-crisis” car

Its name derives from two aims at the heart of the project: a concern for an individual’s freedom (ME) and a responsibility towards society (WE).

Massaud’s ambition when conceiving the ME.WE was to create a realistic ‘anti-crisis’ car, one that looked for answers to the world’s human, economic and environmental challenges.

The collaboration used unconventional techniques to produce a concept car with three primary aims: pertinence, synthesis and modernity.

The result is a car like no other – one that resets the expectations of small and affordable cars.

All purpose vehicle

Built around a tubular aluminium structure, it is made up of interchangeable expanded polypropylene body panels. This ultra resilient and ultra light material makes up the body, including doors, wings, bonnet and bumpers and is 100% recyclable.

But the real genius of its design is that it’s four cars in one. The lightweight panels can be re-configured by its owner to become a car to suit the occasion: pick-up, convertible, off-roader or small city car.

Under the body it has been conceived as an electric car, with its motors integrated neatly inside each wheel. The ME.WE can quickly change from two to four-wheel drive depending on the terrain it is driving over.

Fancy heading to the beach?

The concept is not a reinvention of the car, but rather a vehicle that has been designed to meet everyone’s needs. The pleasure derived from owning and driving it comes from simpler things such as ease of parking, adaptability and huge amounts of fun built into it!

We believe our concept is a winner – if you do too, then show your support, get behind our concept and make the innovative ME.WE the London Design Museums, Design of the Year 2014.

Don’t forget to visit www.designmuseum.org and vote on April 22, 2014!