The Nissan Friend-ME Concept is a four-passenger sedan designed for a generation with a very different automotive outlook. With an assertive, imposing exterior featuring boldly flowing sculpted lines, Friend-ME is a confident creature of the night, meant to be seen in bright city lights.
The concept is applicable globally, but the genesis of Friend-ME was Nissan's research into the aspirations of customers destined to emerge as the world's largest single market segment: the "Balínghòu", which is how around 240 million Chinese born in the 1980s are known. Specifically, Friend-ME addresses the social dynamics of Chinese men in their mid-20s.
For a generation that grew up without siblings, leisure time shared with peers is treasured.
Edgy, but mannered enough to go with the flow
The car asserts an imposing presence - solidity and flowing lines give it an edgy muscularity.
The Nissan Friend-ME features a low and wide stance with short front and rear overhangs giving a chunky, aggressive and sporty impression. The design's energy flows from the 'V-motion' shaped grille and streams through the bonnet and shoulder lines while the headlamps and rear combination lamps are accentuated by its unique boomerang-shaped lighting signature.
The profile of the vehicle completely describes the progressive translation of 'Distilled Da Qi'. The thin and light floating roof and kick-up shape around the C-pillar resonates well and produces sophisticated harmony. Likewise, the Neon Grey exterior colour - specially developed to appeal to tech-savvy youthful tastes - shows its lines to full effect at night.
'Oracle stone' empowers shared adventure
Inside, front and back, driver and passenger, all four seats are separate with the same high-tech style and status, because in this cabin all aboard are peers - equals. And all share the same information as the driver: speed, navigation, fuel remaining - everything.
Empowering all four adventurers is a unique centre console stretching from the dash to between the rear seats - an iconic monolith in an onyx-black finish. Screens visible from each seat blend seamlessly with the surface, only becoming apparent as they display whatever contents the buzz of the moment demands. Whoever finds cool content can transfer it from his mobile to the on-board screens so all can share in the fun.
A dream within reach
Nissan Friend-ME has been carefully designed as a dream within reach of young customers in China. Based on an existing Nissan sedan architecture, it requires a minimum of unique components. The ecologically efficient Pure Drive hybrid power train envisioned for Friend-ME would deliver more than enough zip for city driving.
That's the dream Nissan Friend-ME delivers, thanks to the collaboration between design teams from Nissan Design China (NDC) - the Beijing studio established in 2011 - and Nissan Global Design Center (NGDC) under the leadership and direction of Shiro Nakamura, Nissan's Senior Vice President and Chief Creative Officer. One of NDC's most ambitious designs so far, Friend-ME is one of many in-depth explorations of China's customer needs and aspirations now underway.