Nissan folds together an origami Juke using more than 2,000 pieces of paper (pictures)
To celebrate the fifth anniversary of its compact crossover, Nissan commissioned artist Owen Gildersleeve to create a Nissan Juke out of nothing more than folded paper.
The origami Juke took artist Owen Gildersleeve and his team over 200 hours to create.
This isn't some scaled-down model, either -- this is a 1:1-scale Nissan Juke made entirely from paper.
The Nissan Juke was the originator of the compact-crossover craze, coming onto the scene in 2010 and igniting a firestorm of competition in the years to follow.
Everything on this concept car, from the wheel spokes to the badges, is made from folded paper, no hidden sheet metal required.
The origami Juke lacks an interior, because a skeleton was required to make sure the paper held its shape.
The Juke is Nissan's second-most popular vehicle in Europe. Over 700,000 have been sold since its inception.
In the United States, the Juke has sold between 2,000 and 4,000 units each month since it went on sale in October 2010. March 2014 was its best month ever, with sales totaling 6,943 vehicles.
The Juke is available in both front-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive variants.
Nissan sells the Juke with a wide variety of engines spanning multiple markets. In the US, it packs a 1.6-liter four-cylinder, good for 188 horsepower and 177 pound-feet of torque. There are two transmissions available -- a CVT and a six-speed manual.
In 2013, Nissan released the Juke Nismo. The Nismo is a slightly more powerful variant that sports a more aggressive aesthetic.
The granddaddy of the Juke is the Juke R. It's one of Nissan's skunkworks developments, using the drivetrain from the GT-R supercar. The original Juke R featured just a bit more power than the standard model, coming in at 545 hp.
Nissan has yet to provide any details on a second-generation Juke, which is all but inevitable given the car's popularity.
The Juke's polarizing styling has gone on to define Nissan's current generation of design language. Its trademarks can be seen on vehicles ranging from the 370Z sports car to the Murano crossover.
It's very doubtful that paper wheels and tires would translate to a comfortable ride.
All good ideas may start on paper, but very few use that paper in the final result. This is one of those exceptions.