Toyota COMS: the Car for Overpopulated Cities
For getting around in the city, we don’t always need a big five-passenger vehicle, especially if we’re stuck in traffic during rush hour.
The Toyota COMS is a car—a very small car—that’s perfect for this type of solo commuting. It only has one seat, storage space for two grocery bags and a fully electric powertrain. Its top speed is set at about 60 km/h, while its driving range is estimated at 50 km.
In short, if we live in the suburbs or in the country, a COMS will certainly not suit our needs. On the other hand, it’s useful in urban areas where the population is dense, traffic is a problem and parking spaces are rare. An ultra-compact car like the COMS is obviously easier to park, since it occupies about the same space as a motorcycle. In addition, young adults are less interested in cars in general, so a vehicle-sharing service should make them happy, for those times when they need to travel out of their neighbourhood.
A car-sharing service is also facilitated by the use of a smartphone application, which helps find available vehicles on a map and reserve one. Furthermore, Toyota already has pilot projects with COMS and i-Road vehicles—the i-Road is another single-seat ultra-compact car—in cities such as Grenoble, France and Tokyo, Japan.
Toyota has chosen the Montreal Auto Show for the North-American premiere of the little COMS. Does the automaker see potential for this type of car in Canada’s second-largest city? With the multiplication of road construction zones in the coming years, and with some crowded neighbourhoods throughout the city, why not?