The 7 Best Cars at the Tokyo Motor Show in 2025
The Tokyo Motor Show, which has been rebranded the Japan Mobility Show, opened this week with a more muted presence than in years past, with Toyota, Honda, Subaru, Mazda, and others unveiling new cars, concepts, and, sometimes, mobility fantasies in an attempt to explore the cutting edge of moving around and stir the emotions of attendees.
The show, which has run since 1954 on an annual or biannual basis, is the most important auto show in Asia, and, probably, the world, now that the glory days of the auto shows in Detroit, Frankfurt, Geneva, Los Angeles, and other once-vibrant venues are well and truly behind them. The motor show in Tokyo is also said to be the most interesting—a mix of futuristic concepts, Japanese design, and a huge variety of vehicles that are simply never sold in Europe or North America, often smaller cars that are judged not to be viable in the lands where enormous SUVs are dominant.
This year was no exception, with new cars from every major Japanese automaker, in addition to a few Korean and Chinese automakers as well. Toyota had the biggest presence, occupying an enormous space in one of the Tokyo International Exhibition Center’s exhibition halls, which is not surprising for the biggest automaker in the world by volume. That space included sections for Toyota-branded cars as well as those from its luxury division Lexus, the small-volume brand Daihatsu, and the new ultra-luxury brand Century, which Toyota thinks can take on Rolls-Royce and Bentley.
Honda’s space was not much smaller than Toyota’s, but commensurate with its place in the world of Japanese automaking, along with the space for Subaru, Mazda, Nissan, Mitsubishi, and Suzuki. Among the non-Japanese manufacturers, BMW, Mercedes, Hyundai, and BYD made the biggest impressions. The Tokyo Motor Show used to be better, several attendees remarked, though it is still pretty great.
Here are 7 of the best cars here this year.
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Toyota Century Coupe Prototype
Image Credit: Erik Shilling The Century Coupe prototype is the car that Toyota thinks can take on Rolls-Royce and Bentley, along with a Century (not) SUV unveiled a couple of years ago. That, alone, is a pretty bold vision, since automakers as esteemed as Mercedes have attempted to take on Rolls-Royce and Bentley in the ultra-luxury space—Mercedes does so with its Maybach sub-brand—and gotten mixed results. But it’s also hard to count out Toyota, since people also discounted Lexus after its debut over three decades ago. Whatever happens, the Century coupe prototype Toyota showed in Tokyo is extremely slick.
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Hyundai Insteroid
Image Credit: Erik Shilling The Hyundai Insteroid is a very silly car that, in many ways, is what the Tokyo Motor Show is all about. The four-wheeler, first unveiled earlier this year, is a version of the Hyundai Inster EV, a compact crossover SUV that is sold in parts of Asia and Europe. Except this Inster is on steroids, hence the name, with fat rear tires, a ridiculous rear wing, roll cage, stripped-down interior, and a look that appears to be something out of a video game. Hyundai will not confirm what kind of power it makes. The car is delightful.
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Lexus LS Concept
Image Credit: Lexus The Lexus LS sedan will be discontinued after next year, ending a run of nearly four decades as the marque’s flagship vehicle, and the car that took on the S-Class way back in the heady times of the Japanese bubble and proved it could not only compete but win. Lexus isn’t quite sure what to do next, but one thing that seems for sure is that the LS name is sticking around, though it won’t stand for “luxury sedan” anymore, but perhaps “luxury space,” like in the six-wheeled Lexus LS Concept. The LS Concept wants to be the nicest van ever made, with four wheels in the rear for packaging purposes (so the car can sit lower) and an interior that is supposed to make passengers feel enveloped in luxury and safe from the world. It’s possible that the LS Concept will never be seen again, but you probably wouldn’t have seen a six-wheeled luxury van at the Detroit show to begin with.
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Honda Alpha
Image Credit: Honda Honda debuted the new 0 Series EVs at CES earlier this year, and they are sleek-looking cars that are meant to capture the eye of sleek-looking EV buyers, and also, a bit of a dunk on brands like Tesla, whose EVs are looking increasingly dated. The Honda 0 Series barely stands out, though, at the Tokyo Motor Show, given the presence of other EV-forward brands like BYD. The Honda Alpha, part of the 0 Series, first being unveiled in Tokyo, is a new “global” EV that is actually mostly for Japan and Indonesia and, unlikely, for North America. That’s a shame, because it’s the kind of workaday-but-special-looking EV that some American buyers have long pined for.
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Daihatsu Copen
Image Credit: Erik Shilling The old Daihatsu Copen is dying, but the marque showed a new one in Tokyo, a rear-wheel drive tiny sports car or convertible that is radical in its simplicity and viscerally exciting, since it almost looks like a toy. But, as a Toyota executive said in Tokyo during a presentation, making a small car is quite difficult given all the safety tech required these days, which is another excuse automakers have to not even try. If they did, they could make something as good as the Copen, which is two seats of pure excitement.
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Honda Prelude
Image Credit: Erik Shilling The Prelude that Honda showed in Tokyo is not new, having debuted earlier this year, but it is a welcome play at nostalgia for the old Prelude, a small sports car that was discontinued in 2001 but lived on in the parking lots of high schools across America for many a year after. The new one is a hybrid and intended for Europe and Japan. The styling is a little pedestrian, and the hybrid-ness is a little pedestrian, too, but sometimes, it’s good just to see an old friend again, after all this time.
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Lexus LS Mobility Concept
Image Credit: Lexus The Lexus LS Mobility Concept is the third LS concept at Tokyo this year, and also the most far out, which is saying something because one of the other concepts is a luxury six-wheeled van. The LS Mobility Concept is designed for one person, and opens as a jewelry box might, and ferries one around an urban environment in a space that keeps you safely sealed off from the world among many screens. There is little to no chance the LS Mobility Concept ever sees the light of day, but it’s safe to assume that Lexus designers had fun making it, and, for now, it’s fun to look at and imagine.
