"What I proposed was a platform idea like a radio-controlled model car, where you have a battery, motor and chassis that can be combined to produce different types of vehicles," project chief engineer Koji Toyoshima told Automotive News. "The parts of the car are all produced as modules."
Toyoshima divided the car into several modules, for the front, center, rear, battery and motor. The idea is to mix and match these building blocks into different body types.
That approach will support rear-wheel-drive, front-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive layouts, Toyoshima said. And the platform can be scaled up or down to create small, medium and large vehicles.
The center module controls the size. It can be expanded to accommodate bigger batteries.