Sharp LDK+

Putting it out there: could the 2024 Sharp LDK+ concept be the first vehicle to fully embrace the idea of being a room on wheels? 

If there’s any crowd who has seen their fair share of small, room-on-wheels concepts from Japanese automakers, it’s this Weird Car of the Day gang. We can then mentally categorize them as having production-viable features, such as karaoke machines, ice boxes, or fold-down seats. They're collectibles, put another way.

Others, such as the sparse Isuzu Zen and the six-wheel Honda Unibox concept I've written about here, operate on a different continuum, where we’re allowed to cross our arms and say, “Isn’t that nice?” while knowing deep down that it will never be built.

Similarly, we can point to Mario Bellini's Citroën-based Kar-A-Sutra and say, “Isn't that nice?” without feeling obligated to partake in whatever it is that mimes do in their off hours.

A few years ago, I noticed this attractive little MPV concept by Sharp (in partnership with Foxconn) that hasn’t been written about much in the English automotive press.

Today's forgotten concepts are tomorrow's weird cars, right?

Admittedly, the Sharp LDK+ would remain a footnote in my mind, if it wasn't so gosh darn cute, in a first-generation Suzuki Carry kind of way. Horsepower? Sure. Torque? Definitely. Electric? You know it.

But its party trick is inside. Remember all those pandemic conference calls? Take it in the car. Craving a late-night movie with your partner? Watch in the car, thanks to an integrated projector—similar to the Ford SYNus, minus the urban decay Brinks truck vibes.

Like the idea, but want more space? A year later, Sharp showed off a new LDK+, in a more traditional Japanese van shape (linked below).