Gallery: 2014 Concept Cars: Getting set for tomorrow's showrooms

The Elmiraj sedan let Cadillac engineers combine performance and luxury in a long, sleek two-door grand coupe. There’s also 500 hp under its long hood, courtesy of a twin turbocharged V8. The engine is follow-on to the company’s proven 420-hp Twin Turbo V6. The car is built around a chassis and structural components that are part of the company’s lightweight rear-wheel-drive architecture. On the outside, the 4,000-lb car stretches 205 in. with the front and rear housing vertical headlamps and tail lights. The car also sports a pair of functional vents along the hood which let hot air escape the engine compartment. On the dash, a wide-screen high-resolution display shows driver information or scenes from a front-mounted camera. This screen sits behind s transparent speedometer and tachometer.

This fuel-cell-powered concept car from Honda contains its entire powertrain within the engine compartment, a first for fuel-cell vehicles. This gives designers more space for the cabin and storage, as well as the hydrogen fuel tanks, and gives Honda more flexibility using the layout for a variety of vehicle types in the future. Advances in fuel-cell technology let Honda engineers increase power density by 60% (to 3 kW/l) so they could cut the size of the fuel-cell stack by 30% and still get 300 miles on a fill up of hydrogen at 70MPa. The fill up should take about three minutes. The five-passenger car boasts 134 hp and some eye-popping styling.

The Q30 Infiniti mixes the high stance of at crossover, the performance of a coupe, and roominess of a hatchback, and odds are it will sport front-wheel drive or maybe even all-wheel drive when it is ready for production in 2015. It will likely be built in the Sunderland plant in the U.K., which will mark the start of Infiniti prosecution in Europe. The lightweight body makes good use of carbon fiber and could be powered by a four-cylinder engine.

The Club Sport 3 from Mazda carries a special paint scheme meant to make the car look like it is racing past you. The sporty, four-door hatchback also has a special aerodynamic package – rear spoiler and diffusers on the front, sides, and rear. The package will be optional on all 2014 Mazda3 vehicles. Under the hood, a 184-hp 2.5-l engine is mated to a helical, limited-slip differential for added torque. The car can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in seven seconds and hit a top speed of 130 mph. Other performance add-ons include a coil-over kit, a tuned exhaust subsystem, and Brembo two-piece, six-piston drilled brake rotors. Zoom-zoom, indeed.

Like its lesser brother, the Club Sport 3, the Club Sport 6 boasts a paint scheme that makes it look like it’s racing by. But the C6 has a larger engine, a low-compression (14:1) 2.2-l clean diesel engine that puts out 173 hp and 309 ft-lb of torque (at 2,000 rpm). This is the engine that helped Mazda win nine straight times in last year’s Rolex GX Series, earning Mazda the manufacturers and rookie-of-the-year driver’s championship honors.

The two-door, four-passenger IDx from Nissan has an interior that combines “fashionable functionality and comfort in a design brimming with creative originality.” And it’s meant to feel like a living room. Guess that depends on your living room. On the outside, a white and flax (pale yellow) color scheme are meant to invoke a casual feeling inspired by white T-shirts and khaki chinos. But for efficiency and economy, the car is powered by a 1.2 or 1.5-l gas engine connected to a continuously variable transmission.

Nissan’s Sport Sedan Concept’s styling cues include a V-motion front end, a floating roof that looks as if it has no supports, and LED boomerang-shaped headlights and taillights. It also carries a special paint scheme, a metallic orange color called Strad Amber, which Nissan says was inspired by the color of classic violins. Under the hood, a V6 cranks out more than 300 hp and send it through a continuously variable transmission, much like the powertrain on the current Nissan Maxima.

The Rinspeed team in Switzerland is taking the idea of driverless cars seriously. They gave the driver (and passengers) comfortable seats, much like business-class seats in major airlines, and lots of entertainment and internet features. This lets them work and play rather than concentrate on driving, navigating, or sightseeing. And to make the driver even more comfortable, the steering wheel slides to the center of the console and out of his way. The design team is certain autonomous driving will make cars even more attractive than trains, airplanes, or busses for long-distance travel.

Engineers from smart, a Daimler company, teamed with Danish interior design specialist BoConcept to come up with a concept car that will go on sale for about $18k this spring. Though small, the car is equipped with electric windows, power steering, heated seats, a panoramic roof with sunblind, and a five-speaker sound system. And for those who like the look of their limited edition fortwo BoConcept (www.boconcept.com) will soon be selling furniture and home accessories that mirror the car’s styling.

The head-turning FT-1 from Toyota is pure sport car and just one-step away from a racing machine. And it might be a first for concept cars in that it first appeared in Gran Turismo, a game for the Sony Playstation. The car is set up to be a front-engine, rear-wheel drive powertrain with the passenger compartment set far back within the wheelbase to improve weight distribution. The A-pillar on the roof is also set back, but it’s to give the driver better sightlines around corners. Top keep the interior clean, designers added a color heads-up-display that projects critical information onto the windshield just above the steering wheel. In a seemingly contradictory move, designers made a section of the long, low hood transparent, but there’s not really an engine in the car. Those who peer in merely see an ambiguous engine cover. But if engineers take the FT-1 concept any further, it’s assumed they slip in a high-tech, high-performance engine to complement the racecar exterior

The Concept XC Coupe is Volvo engineers effort to push safety without compromising on design, size, or weight. They got some help form high-strength boron steel in making the two-door car safer and smaller. The four-passenger bears an XC badge, so it is a four-wheel drive vehicle. It also carries a “Plug-In Hybrid” nametag, so the powerplant planned for this car is probably one of Volvo’s four-cylinder engines working with a large battery pack. For additional storage, the XC carries a slim, aerodynamic luggage carrier on the roof. The carrier expands vertically as the driver and passengers ass more gear.

This off-road Beetle is a little bit longer and wider than stock VW Bugs, and has more clearance underneath. The hood is flanked by a pair of air vents, and the front apron just below the hood also has a wide air intake covered by a black honeycomb screen. On the back of the car, storage racks stand ready to hold skis or snowboards (and sand boards), and the trunk opens even with gear in those rear racks. The Dune is powered by a 210-hp turbocharged 2-l engine with a six-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. They send power to the front wheels through an electronic differential. Estimated mileage is 23/20 mpg (city/hwy).

Engineers designing VW’s Passat Bluemotion concept car had a mission: to assemble the most fuel efficient non-hybrid, gas-powered mid-sized sedan possible, and make it one consumers would want to drive. They started with a turbocharged 1.4-l four-cylinder engine with direct injection and added Active Cylinder Management. ACM switches off one or two cylinders when the demand for power drops, such as when maintaining speeds on city streets. Next they added a feature found on the hybrid Jetta that decouples the engine from the rear wheels. This lets the Passat coast or roll with the least amount of mechanical drag from moving engine parts. Then they added a start/stop feature that shuts off the engine when the car comes to a stop. The engine restarts when the driver lifts his foot from the brake. The results: 42 mpg on the highway along with 150 hp and 184 ft-lb of torque