Every year, Italdesign Giugiaro->ke3778 comes to the Geneva Motor Show->ke228; and every year it brings something completely loony (in a good way) to the party.

This time around, the Italian design house might have outdone itself completely with the unveiling of the Clipper, a peculiar-looking MPV whose eccentricity can't be measured at least until you see what its fully capable of.

For a company that given us the Parcour and the Brivido in past auto shows, the Clipper certainly fits into that edgy design and sharpness that its two predecessors had.

But arguably the most interesting parts about the Clipper are its similarities with the Volkswagen Tex Concept it designed for VW at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show. That, or our eyes are just playing tricks on us.

In any case, this is the Clipper MPV, folks. Chances are, you won't see another one quite like it in the near future.

Click past the jump to read more about the 2014 Italdesign Giugiaro Clipper Concept

2014 Giugiaro Clipper

Specifications
  • Make: Array
  • Model: 2014 Giugiaro Clipper
  • Horsepower: 148
  • [do not use] Vehicle Model: Array
Pros
Cons

Exterior

The front end design of the Clipper Concept isn't as distinctive as the Brivido and the Parcour, but it does hold some quality attributes that bears mentioning.

Even if its labeled as an MPV concept, the design house fully admitted that in designing the Clipper, it wanted to do it to make the concept look closer to a production level, albeit add some exotic elements to it so as not to lose the concept character that Giugiaro is known for. So don't be surprised if the front end looks pretty subtle, although props to the unconventional bumper setup.

What really excited us about the concept is the absence of a conventional B-pillar on the sides. Instead, Giugiaro opted to go with a funky door configuration featuring "butterfly" doors at the front and "gull-wing" doors on the rear. It's a little confusing to look at when all the doors are "open", but hey, it's unique, right?

The panoramic windscreen that sweeps all the way back to the rear spoiler is a nice touch, although the rear end of the concept, despite being inundated with heaps of light clusters, looks a little too boxy to us.

Volkswagen Italdesign Giugiaro Tex Concept

Interior

For an MPV, the three-row, six-seater configuration of the Clipper does provide generous amounts of space. Headroom could be an issue for tall passengers because of the low and swooping nature of the roof, but for the most part, the cabin received plenty of shiny new features.

The configuration is decidedly high-tech, which is a good thing given that the car still is a concept. There''s a floating digital instrument cluster that evokes style and function, the latter of which serves the use of breaking up all the information you're getting into two different screens.

An electronically adjustable center tunnel can also be seen and with it comes an 11-inch touchscreen display that quite frankly looks like one of those gear panels you see more in planes than in cars. Giugiaro said that buttons are largely absent in the configuration and instead replaced by "graphic touchscreen interfaces". That sounds like a novel twist, but wouldn't it have been far more functional to be able to feel what you're pressing, instead of jamming away at a screen?

The interior does have a fancy two-tone Alcantara upholstery and four iPad Minis integrated into the headrests of the first and second row seats, so that's a nice plus on the Clipper's cabin marks.

Drivetrain

Power for the Giugiaro Clipper comes in the form of two electric motors that each produce 149 horsepower, for a total output of 298 horsepower. It's driven by an all-wheel-drive system and when its on full blast on the road, the concept can hit a top speed of 126 mph while also being efficient enough to travel 335 miles before running out of charge.

When Can I Drive One?

Despite looking more like an actual production car than a concept (except for those doors), the chances of the Clipper Concept making its way into production are pretty slim. Now, you can't really close the door on that option seeing as the design house is owned by Volkswagen and this concept could very well point to a future VW model that we still don't know about.

Still and all, in its current guise, the Clipper will likely remain a concept and not much else.

Conclusion

Giugiaro went with overall subtlety mixed in with the bombast of the weird door setup and while it might work for some people, we admit to being spoiled by the Brivido and Parcour concepts that nothing short of the standards both those concepts set would be a disappointment to us. Sadly, that's what the Clipper ended up being.