Nissan is hoping to celebrate its 80th anniversary this year by reaching a record 5m sales, CEO Carlos Ghosn said in Tokyo.

“We are turning ‘what if’ [the company slogan] into ‘what is’,” he added.

Its BladeGlider show concept is is a delta wing shape electric vehicle inspired by the electrified challenger being prepared for the 2014 Le Mans 24 hour race. The automaker has mades no secret it previews a production car – and said “when”, not “if”.

Meanwhile, the Freeflow concept previews models intended to entice a generation more interested in computers and phones back to cars. Both conventional and high performance Nismo versions made first appearances in Tokyo.

“Electric vehicles have unique characteristics which open up new design possibilities,” said Ghosn of the BladeGlider. “It demonstrates our options about the long-term potential of EVs which are simple, light, aerodynamic, sporty, agile and fun. It shows the potential of our EV programme through its unconventional, some might say radical, approach.”

He described the Freeflow as a car for the digital generation, born after 1990 and brought up with computers and, latterly, tablets and smartphones as everyday parts of life.

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“We didn’t just consult them: they helped design the car,” Ghosn said. “It is simple, clean and cool, while the Nismo evokes our racing cars of the past.”

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