Concept & Prototype
Concept cars (also known as show cars) are developed to give an often visionary foretaste of upcoming series vehicles. They are primarily shown at exhibitions, trade fairs and events and often serve car manufacturers, coachbuilders or designers as test and image objects to present new and very often progressive designs and test their public appeal. Most of the concepts are not developed to production maturity. The concept vehicles remain one-offs. Before series vehicles are produced, a number of drivable prototypes are built and tested in "real" life: after tests on visually protected driving areas, they are taken out onto the public road. From the 1950s onwards, these prototypes are also known as 'Erlkönige' - at least in Germany. After a test phase, final changes are made to the production vehicle, or it is decided not to produce the relevant car in series and to discontinue development/testing.
