Unique to Japan, the tiny Honda N-Van Compo comes with a roof tent and amazingly fits 4 people

K-Campers are known for packing a lot into a tiny space. Unique to Japan, the K-Campers is a type of Kei car, a Japanese vehicle category for the smallest highway-legal passenger cars that are built with restricted dimensions and engine capacity.

Designer: Honda

The ultimate microcar, K-Campers host an array of multifunctional features that help make the tiny space feel a lot roomier. Upgrading from the Vamos and Acty vans, Honda Japan released the N-Van Compo, a Kei Van Camper that sleeps four with the help of an expandable roof.

Reaching 133.7 inches in length, the N-Van Compo is 20.4 inches shorter than Mazda MX-5 Miata, but the size can be deceiving. Converting the classic N-Van into a compact camper van, the N-Van Compo finds space with modular and multifunctional interiors. When driving, the N-Van Compo can be operated like any other motor vehicle only to transform into a sleeping space when put in park.

When camping, passengers of the N-Van Compo can create sleeping accommodations by turning the driver’s seat around and spreading the mattress modules out in line to make room for one taller and one shorter person to sleep comfortably. When it comes to the van’s interior configuration, interested buyers have three options: Style-One, Style-Two, and Cabin.

Getting the most bang for your buck, Style-One provides some overhead storage, two sinks, a freshwater tank, microwave, small refrigerator, solar panel, foldable table, and a set of screen doors. The expandable roof can be accessed from the van’s sleeping area and is also included in the van’s Style-Two configuration.

Only changing the location of the kitchen to be on one side entirely, Style-Two hosts the same array of amenities as Style-One. The final option, Cabin, gives buyers the option of keeping the expandable roof, microwave, and refrigerator, but ditches the sink to make room for sleeping and storage.

The post Unique to Japan, the tiny Honda N-Van Compo comes with a roof tent and amazingly fits 4 people first appeared on Yanko Design.

Meet the Honda Kei, a simple and efficient autonomous vehicle for commuting in the urban future

If you know anything about Japanese cars, you’ve definitely heard about Kei car. It literally means “light car” and was a result of the spending capability of the Japanese post World War II. If you ever visit Japan, you’ll be able to identify them by their typical yellow license plates.

The design of future vehicles is already seeing a paradigm shift from the traditional craft owing to the turbulent dynamics of the current world we live in. Climate change, pandemic, and other human-induced activities affect the design evolution both in psychological and eco-conscious terms. As a result, we’ve seen quite a few socializing vehicle concepts centered on minimalism and an airy feel to soak in the natural environment. The Honda Kei autonomous concept vehicle designed by Mostafa Bonakdar comes from this very genre.

The electric vehicle draws inspiration from the Honda Kei – picturing the future of an urban personal commuter or a rental car. That is mixed with the vision of current-age in-house robots bots like Asimo or 3E-C18. Even the Samsung’s Gear 360 camera and the robotic delivery vehicle by Starship are considered for the initial sketches. However, Mostafa emphasizes the Honda Acty cab over microvan and the Kei trucks manufactured by Honda from 1977 till 2021 as the initial starting point of the design. The penned future Kei has a glass dome top to maximize interaction with the elements. This glass dome also aids in long-range visibility with a 180-degree unobstructed view in every direction. As I can see, the Kei concept is about keeping Honda’s inherent ideology of minimum footprint and optimum use of space.

Honda Kei has a very apparent boxy design characteristic that some will love like hell while others won’t notice. The minimal footprint is another quality worth highlighting here, an absolute brownie point heading into the future where sense prevails and is all about a considerate lifestyle!

Designer: Mostafa Bonakdar