10 Weirdest Concept Car Designs Ever

Most concept cars are never meant to be anything more than a concept. They’re elaborate ideas for vehicles that cannot possibly be mass manufactured (or even made) when they are showcased at trade shows and other industry events. Concept cars are instead meant to excite consumers, investors, and the general public about the future. As such, they tend to be strange by nature.

Even still, some concept car designers really take advantage of the opportunity to just get weird with it. Many of the wildest concept cars were never meant to be unleashed onto the streets, and some were never really functional in the first place. However, they all show how much you can do with your imagination and four (or more or even less) wheels.

Related: 10 Futuristic Technologies That Are More Cool Than Useful

10 Rolls-Royce 103EX

Self-driving cars are hardly the futuristic novelty they once were, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for bizarre innovations in that space. According to Rolls-Royce, the self-driving vehicle of the future is less of a traditional car and more of a luxury resort on wheels.

The Rolls-Royce 103EX is a massive—19.4 feet (5.9 meters) long—self-driving vehicle that resembles your living room more closely than whatever is in your driveway. While many aspects of the car are designed to be customized, the couch-like “driver” seat and massive built-in entertainment center allow the car’s autonomous driving program (“Eleanor”) to get you where you’re going as comfortably as possible. The built-in umbrella holder/dispenser is a particularly luxurious touch.^[1]

9 The Dale

In 1975, the Twentieth Century Motor Car Corporation unveiled the Dale: a three-wheeled budget car that was reportedly efficient enough to offer up to 70 miles per gallon (29.7 km/liter). The Dale’s efficiency was a major selling point to consumers who were desperate to save money at the pump following the 1973 oil crisis. The idea of an affordable solution to the energy crisis seemed too good to be true.

As it turns out, that’s exactly what the Dale was. Twentieth Century co-founder Geraldine Elizabeth Carmichael used The Dale as the centerpiece of a massive scam that saw her steal an untold amount of investor money before disappearing. Carmicheal was caught in 1989 after being featured in an episode of Unsolved Mysteries.^[2]

8 Ford Nucleon

The Atomic Age gifted us with numerous outrageous products inspired by optimism about nuclear power’s perceived potential. Few of those designs can compete with the Ford Nucleon in terms of sheer audacity. Like so many of the Atomic Age product concepts of the 1950s, the Ford Nucleon looked like something yanked from the pages of a sci-fi magazine. It wasn’t just the design, though.

The Nucleon was actually powered by a small nuclear reactor. While the Nucleon was a non-functional design concept, Ford theorized that nuclear reactors and their various safeguards would eventually become small enough to fit inside a consumer vehicle. That never happened, but the Nucleon eventually inspired the design of many of the cars in the Fallout universe.^[3]

7 Mercedes-Benz Biome

The Mercedes-Benz Biome certainly looks odd, though it’s no more unusual in that respect than the hundreds of other futuristic car concepts out there. What makes the Biome truly remarkable is that it’s grown rather than built.

Mercedes claims that the core components of the Biome are crafted from seeds grown in a special nursery. On top of that, the Biome emits pure oxygen and can eventually be composted. It all sounds nice, but don’t get too excited. Even if the Biome works as well as Mercedes claims, the logistics of growing enough Biomes to meet consumer needs makes the idea of mass “manufacturing” this vehicle a pipe dream.^[4]

6 Plymouth Voyager III

Pursuing the next great family vehicle has led some of the top car manufacturers in the world down some truly strange roads. That said, the Plymouth Voyager 3 may be the oddest and most desperate attempt at a “do-it-all” family vehicle that has ever made it to the concept phase.

In its base form, the Plymouth Voyager 3 was a fairly nondescript compact car designed to be driven into the city. However, the vehicle came with a massive trailer attachment that essentially turned it into a small bus. When that trailer was attached, the rear wheels of the base car actually retracted into the underside of the vehicle. You could argue for this idea on paper, but seeing it in action quickly revealed a host of logistical and aesthetic issues that couldn’t be overcome.^[5]

5 Honda Fuya-Jo

The late ’90s and early 2000s saw an influx of “cool” cars largely designed to appeal to the perceived desires of young drivers. Some (like the re-imagined Volkswagen Beetle) were fairly successful. Others (like the Chrysler PT Cruiser) are famous failures. None of those cars are half as odd as Honda’s 1999 concept vehicle, the Fuya-Jo.

The Fuya-Jo is often described as a driveable nightclub. The interior could be used as a dance floor, the built-in sound system included over a dozen speakers, and the car’s unusual exterior was meant to emphasize standing space while allowing the vehicle to navigate tight city streets. Honda bounced the concept car between trade shows for a few years. Still, it’s unclear if the company ever expected to put this oddity into production.^[6]

4 Peugeot E-Doll

Many kids grow up playing with toy sports cars while they dream of eventually owning the real thing. In 2000, manufacturer Peugeot decided to play with that dynamic by debuting the “City Toyz” line: cars designed to resemble toys. The “highlight” of that largely failed endeavor was the truly bizarre Peugeot E-Doll.

The E-Doll’s strange exterior is only topped by its bizarre scooter handle-like steering device that comes with twist-operated gas and brake controls. The E-Doll even included a built-in, semi-transparent rear shopping cart attachment: a unique feature that Peugeot strangely showcased by filling it with bouncy balls. That visual made the already absurd automobile somehow feel even more childish.^[7]

3 Citroen Karin Concept

By the 1980s, movie studios and car manufacturers were practically copying each other’s homework in an attempt to deliver the future of vehicular design. The wilder a car looked, the more people believed it represented the future. Few cars from that era are as divisive and distinctive as the Citroen Karin Concept.

The Citroen Karin Concept was designed to resemble a pyramid with its massive sloped sides and thin interior. Even in the wonderful world of concept cars, it’s a truly unique look. That distinctive pyramid shape is only half of the story with this one, though. The Karin boasts one of the tiniest car roofs you’ll ever see; its interior color palette is the most 1970s sci-fi thing this side of Logan’s Run. The driver seat/steering wheel is in the middle of the three-seat interior. People tend to love or hate this one.^[8]

2 ItalDesign Machimoto

Every now and then, a great mind realizes that two incredible things are even better together. Can you imagine a world where peanut butter and chocolate never joined forces? In 1986, the Italdesign engineering company decided to test the limits of that approach by combining a motorcycle and a car and calling it the Machimoto.

The results are stunning. The Machimoto’s roofless design and low-sloping front window are meant to invoke the sensation of speeding down the road on a motorcycle. Unlike a motorcycle, though, the Machimoto can seat six to nine people. Believe it or not, the idea of a minivan motorcycle never gained much consumer traction and was plagued by numerous safety and design flaws. It’s hard to get excited about a car that can be thwarted by a rainy day.^[9]

1 Mercedes Vision AVTR

The Mercedes Vision AVTR represents a truly unique collaboration between the manufacturers at Mercedes and the creators of the Avatar film franchise. Whatever you’re picturing when you think of those two names probably doesn’t come close to capturing just how weird this concept is.

The interior of this car features few physical instruments. Instead, it is designed to be controlled by a massive digital dashboard, a throttle, and the driver’s mind. The basic idea is that the immersive digital dashboard conveys information and functions that the driver is meant to interact with by focusing on them. The vehicle’s built-in brain-computer interface (BCI) then turns those thoughts into actions. Remarkably, a functional (if limited) version of this vehicle exists and even includes advanced features like semi-dynamic interiors, AR projections, and the ability to drive the car sideways.^[10]

fact checked by
Darci Heikkinen