About Concepts and Prototypes
Concept cars are where designers get to dream out loud. Free from the constraints of cost, crash regulations and manufacturing, they can show off radical shapes, unusual materials and technologies years ahead of production. Some concepts are pure fantasy, built to grab headlines at an auto show; others are thinly disguised previews of real models, and reading which is which is one of the pleasures of following the car world.
The tradition goes back to the late 1930s, when Harley Earl's Buick Y-Job is often cited as the first true concept car, and it flourished with GM's Motorama shows of the 1950s, which paraded turbine-powered, jet-age fantasies before huge crowds. Since then, concepts have previewed everything from the Dodge Viper to modern electric crossovers. Today they often showcase autonomous driving, new interior layouts, sustainable materials and electric platforms, while prototypes in testing show how far a production car has come.
This page follows concepts and prototypes across the industry: show-stand dreams, design studies, production previews, technology demonstrators and the prototypes that hint at a brand's next move. It also covers the concepts that fail to reach production and the occasional surprise when a wild idea makes it to the showroom almost unchanged. For anyone curious about what cars might look like in five or ten years, this is where the clues appear first.