Audi's latest Metroproject Quattro design study, which debuted this morning at the Tokyo Motor Show, pays homage to Japan's flair for miniaturization and provides clues to the look and packaging of a future Audi sub-compact production car (read A1).

The design study seeks to combine the premium quality, innovation and design progressiveness for which the Audi range is renowned into a vehicle that occupies less than four meters of road space. The concept has also been engineered for efficiency, with a hybrid powertrain. As such, it is able to derive its power solely from its 1.4-liter petrol engine, purely from its electric motor or through a combination of the two; their interplay controlled by the highly intelligent on-board management system.

Inside, there are four individual seats and an innovative Audi mobile hand-held device offering mobile telephony, MP3 and video playback and GPS navigation. The driver is able to input sat-nav destinations and control in-car functions such as heating before even leaving home.