Debuting at Milan Design Week, Toyota’s Setsuna is probably the most unique concept car challenges the idea that modern cars have to be high-tech machines packed with the latest technologies.
Toyota has created an open-top two-seater vehicle made out of wood to highlight the affection owners develop for family vehicles over time, which is in contrast to the more disposable nature of digital devices. The roadster model car is made almost entirely of wood, Japanese cedar and birch, and was built using traditional Japanese carpentry techniques that don’t involve nails or screws. Called as Setsuna by Toyota, the wooden car is a work of art and craftsmanship.
And as a work of art, Toyota is thinking of the Setsuna as something you’d want to pass as a family heirloom. “As a family accrues time and experiences together with their car, lovingly caring for it and passing it on to the next generation, that car will acquire a new type of value that only the members of that family can appreciate,” the company notes. As the wood’s characteristics change over time, depending on the temperature and humidity levels, Setsuna will change and pick up the personalities of its owners and the lives they led.