Good lord these Daihatsu concepts are incredible

You may remember that back in October last year, we brought you news of Daihatsu’s four concept cars for the Tokyo motor show. All four were brilliantly bonkers and were accompanied by comic strip-style press images. It’d be fair to say we were mourning Daihatsu’s decade-old withdrawal from the UK that day.

And now that sorrow has been reawakened, because the Japanese carmaker has come up with eight even wackier concepts for the Tokyo Auto Salon this coming weekend. At least, we think they’re concepts.

There’s not a tremendous amount of information other than the fact that the whole project seems to be titled ‘Daihatsu Customising World 2020’. If we’re honest, we’ve also been massively distracted by the Hijet kei truck with a climbing wall on the side.

Yes, you read that correctly and no, your eyes do not deceive you when looking at the images above. Our second favourite has to be the wonderfully Nineties Hijet DJ Version with its huge speakers, glittery paintjob and LED laden face. These concepts are all about having a laugh, and we’re down for that Daihatsu.

What else is there? Well, the bodykitted Copen GR Sport looks like an angry little hamster, the Tanto Cross Field is an adventurous little tyke and its striking Premium sibling is the tiny city car that London’s streets need.

Then there’s the Taft, which definitely is a concept because it says concept on the front. Daihatsu describes it as a “tough & almighty fun tool". Anyone else seeing shades of shrunken Hummer?

The Rocky Sporty Style is a compact SUV with angular bumpers and a racing stripe, and the Hijet café truck thing is a collaboration with Hatsune Miku – who is apparently a virtual Japanese pop star. Erm, gotcha.

We’re still not quite sure what’s going on. But we do know the UK is worse off for not having the Daihatsu Customising World 2020 on its shores. Come on Toyota, do the right thing here.