Nissan concept car for the young Chinese

Nissan yesterday revealed its Friend-ME concept, a four-passenger sedan designed for a generation with a very different automotive outlook. With an assertive, imposing exterior featuring boldly flowing sculpted lines, Friend-ME is a confident creature of the night, meant to be seen in bright city lights.

The concept is applicable globally, but the genesis of Friend-ME was Nissan's research into the aspirations of customers destined to emerge as the world's largest single market segment: the "Bālínghòu", which is how around 240 million Chinese born in the 1980s are known. Specifically, Friend-ME addresses the social dynamics of Chinese men in their mid-20s.

With its exterior design, Friend-ME addresses a fine balance that middle-class Bālínghòu youth must heed. "We call our solution Distilled Da Qi," said Taiji Toyota, Vice President of Nissan Design China. "Da Qi is about casting an aura, about standing out, but at the same time going with the flow, fitting in. It's a question of balance, and we've worked to refine it right down to the essence. The result adds an entirely new and youthful dimension to the sedan category."

Inside, front and back, driver and passenger, all four seats are separate with the same high tech style and status. Empowering all four occupants is a unique centre console stretching from the dash to between the rear seats - an iconic monolith in an onyx-black finish. Screens visible from each seat blend seamlessly with the surface, only becoming apparent as they display whatever contents the buzz of the moment demands. Whoever finds cool content can transfer it from his mobile to the on-board screens so all can share in the fun.

Nissan Friend-ME has been carefully designed as a dream within reach of young customers in China. Based on an existing Nissan sedan architecture, it requires a minimum of unique components. The ecologically efficient PureDrive hybrid powertrain envisioned for Friend-ME would deliver more than enough zip for city driving.