Is this the car of the future? The coolest, techiest and craziest concepts from the Geneva Motor Show

From hybrid supercars to three-seat drive-o-pods, 2017’s show had it all

Unless you enjoy a persistent fug of cheese, grey weather and horrifically overpriced bottles of sparkling water, it’s likely you’ve never really bothered with Geneva.

In this banker’s bolthole, supercars are as common as the family runaround and it's also the annual setting for one of the most important motor shows on the planet.

The Geneva Motor Show is where major marques love to reveal glimpses into the future, unleashing wild concepts and ideas, as well as everyday updates to well-loved models like the Nissan Qashqai and Suzuki Swift.

While the biggest names in the performance car game use it as a platform to unveil forthcoming kidney-pulverising machines.

Bentley EXP 12 Speed 6e

Did Bentley just make the electric sports car desirable? There's a good chance it did, as the enticingly entitled EXP 12 Speed 6e bears all the hallmarks of a potential plug-in classic.

Details are a little light but a Bentley spokesperson claimed that this is an exercise to gauge customer reaction to adding an all-electric Bentley to the line-up. The marque has suggested that the model would come with an inductive charging system as standard, so customers don't have to put up with a messy wall box.

Mercedes-Benz AMG GT Concept

AMG, the purveyor of molten hot Mercedes models, has finally succumbed to the inevitability of battery packs and electric motors. 

Its gorgeous (okay, apart from the wheels) AMG GT Concept highlights just how good a four-seater hybrid AMG GT could look. Better still, it packs a decidedly banzai 805hp.

Land Rover Discovery Project Hero

Yes, this is a Land Rover Discovery… But no ordinary one. It comes as standard with an on-board drone. 

It's part of Jaguar Land Rover's Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) unit, which can basically do anything to any JLR product if you pay them enough, and sees a standard 3.0-litre TD6 Discovery kitted out will all manner of advanced communication technology to help the Red Cross in emergency situations.

The roof-mounted drone features 'self-centring and magnetic retention technology', which means it is capable of landing on the Project Hero vehicle, even when it's moving.

Footage from the aerial camera, which can travel at speeds up 33mph, can be beamed back to a tablet and screens inside the vehicle. 

It is claimed that Project Hero will be used by the Red Cross during large scale emergency situations, such as avalanches, floods or automotive accidents. 

At present this is only for the Austrian Red Cross, but give it a few years and who knows?

Toyota i-TRIL

An extension of Toyota's similarly madcap i-ROAD concept, which was first unveiled in Geneva in 2013, the i-TRIL is a 'fun' alternative to city cars, small hatchbacks, motorcycles and even electric cars.

Powered by batteries and an electric motor, it weighs just 600kg, measures just 3m long and features a 1+2 seating layout. Toyota claims it is good for around 180-miles between charges.

However, it is the operation and performance of the vehicle that are truly peculiar. 

Vanda Electrics Dendrobium

It's quite possible you've never head of Vanda Electrics, and we won't hold that against you, because current products include the cute-but-odd Motochimp battery-powered scooter and the fast-charging electric Ant Truck.

But the Singapore-based company stunned everyone at Geneva by springing an extremely handsome, all-electric hypercar, seemingly out of nowhere.

In a radical change of naming strategy, the vehicle is named not after an animal but a variety of orchid. This is a reference to the complex rear-hinged door mechanism, which opens out like petals, sort of. 

Techrules Ren

And the winner of the most terrible company name goes to... Techrules. On the plus side, its concept car is pushing the boundaries of diesel-fuelled turbine recharging.

In its most eccentric form, this rampaging 1287bhp beast features up to six electric motors, with advanced lithium-ion battery packs, to delivery gut-busting performance figures.

A diesel engine is then harnessed to power a turbine, which recharges the batteries. Think of it as the most powerful range-extended hybrid ever made.