The LA900 series is a
crossover SUV
A crossover, crossover SUV, or crossover utility vehicle (CUV) is a type of automobile with an increased ride height that is built on unibody chassis construction shared with passenger cars, as opposed to traditional sport utility vehicles (S ...
-styled
kei car
Kei car (or , kanji: , "light automobile", ), known variously outside Japan as Japanese city car or Japanese microcar, is the Japanese vehicle category for the smallest highway-legal passenger cars with restricted dimensions and engine capacit ...
produced by Japanese automaker
Daihatsu
, commonly known as Daihatsu, is a Japanese automobile manufacturer and one of the oldest surviving Japanese internal combustion engine manufacturers. The company's headquarters are located in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture.
Historically, Daihatsu was ...
. It is built on
Daihatsu New Global Architecture
The Daihatsu New Global Architecture (abbreviated as DNGA) is a modular unibody automobile platform that underpin various Daihatsu vehicles and its rebadged versions supplied for Toyota, Subaru, and Perodua. Introduced in 2019, it is aimed for ...
(DNGA) platform and replaced the
Cast Activa and Sport.
It was first introduced at the 2020
Tokyo Auto Salon in January 2020 as a prototype vehicle and went on sale in June 2020.
Etymology
The "Taft" nameplate was revived in 2020 after last being used on the Indonesian market
F70 series Taft offroader in 2007. The name was originally used on the
F10 series Taft.
For the LA900 model, the name ''Taft'' is an abbreviation for ''Tough & Almighty Fun Tool''.
Concept model
The Taft borrows its overall design from the WakuWaku
concept car
A concept car (also known as a concept vehicle, show vehicle or prototype) is a car made to showcase new styling and/or new technology. They are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or ...
, which was one of four kei car concepts showcased at the
2019 Tokyo Motor Show.
According to Daihatsu, the WakuWaku was designed to be a versatile combination of crossover SUV and
recreational vehicle
A recreational vehicle, often abbreviated as RV, is a motor vehicle or trailer that includes living quarters designed for accommodation. Types of RVs include motorhomes, campervans, coaches, caravans (also known as travel trailers and camper ...
.
The concept has four seats, with two folding rear seats, hidden rear doors, and a trunk located on the roof of the car behind the
sunroof.
The three other concept vehicles shown alongside the WakuWaku were the TsumuTsumu
commercial truck, WaiWai
minivan
Minivan (sometimes called simply as van) is a North American car classification for vehicles designed to transport passengers in the rear seating row(s), with reconfigurable seats in two or three rows. The equivalent classification in Europe i ...
, and IcoIco
autonomous vehicle
Vehicular automation involves the use of mechatronics, artificial intelligence, and multi-agent systems to assist the operator of a vehicle (car, aircraft, watercraft, or otherwise).Hu, J.; Bhowmick, P.; Lanzon, A.,Group Coordinated Control o ...
.
File:Osaka Motor Show 2019 (37) - Daihatsu WakuWaku.jpg, Daihatsu WakuWaku
File:Osaka Motor Show 2019 (38) - Daihatsu WakuWaku.jpg, WakuWaku rear view
Sales
References
External links
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{{modern-auto-stub
Taft (LA900)
Cars introduced in 2020
Kei sport utility vehicles
Crossover sport utility vehicles
Hatchbacks
Front-wheel-drive vehicles
All-wheel-drive vehicles
Vehicles with CVT transmission