The 31 coolest concept cars revealed in 2018

Renault

The Renault EZ-Go concept.

• Concept cars allow auto companies to lay out their vision for the future.
• While the specs and features assigned to these vehicles may be far-fetched and somewhat arbitrary, their basic features can point toward where auto companies are spending their research and development money.
• Autonomy and electrification were two of the biggest themes that characterized many of this year's concept cars.
• BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche released some of 2018's coolest concept cars.

Concept cars allow auto companies to lay out their vision for the future. While the specs and features assigned to these vehicles may be far-fetched and somewhat arbitrary, their basic features can point toward where auto companies are spending their research and development money.

Taken together, the concept cars released in a given year can serve as a preview of where the auto industry is headed or as an opportunity to show off ideas that may never be commercially viable or technologically feasible.

Read more: We drove a $246,000 Bentley Bentayga SUV to see if it's ready to do battle with Rolls-Royce and Lamborghini. Here's the verdict.

Autonomy and electrification were two of the biggest themes that characterized many of this year's concept cars. Some concept cars didn't have steering wheels or traditional front and back seats, allowing them to imagine seating arrangements where passengers might face each other or lie down and sleep on a full-sized bed. Businesses could use these speculative, driverless vehicles to deliver food or packages.

Other concept cars embodied the auto industry's past and present, appealing to fans of gas-powered SUVs, pickup trucks, and sports cars.

Unconventional styling is also a feature common to many concept cars, as designers take the opportunity to test out exterior and interior designs that may never actually get used in production cars.

These are the 31 coolest concept cars of 2018.