How the car industry joined in with the fun of April Fool’s Day 2022

On April 1 each year, people the world over aim to pull out their best straight-faced jokes and dupe the world into believing something wacky.

The car industry has good form for this, with manufacturers sharing details of new products and special editions that will never see production – but might make you think they will, just for a second.

Here are the best efforts from the car industry in 2022…

Isuzu D-Max Street

Isuzu makes some of the best pick-up trucks in the business, and its April Fool’s joke involved expanding this range with what appears to be a supermini-sized truck.

It’s pitched as a ‘short-wheelbase, Single Cab pick-up specifically designed for inner-city areas’ and has just the one seat, with 18-inch alloy wheels and chrome exterior parts giving it some extra visual appeal.

London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) TX Spring Edition

The black cab gets its name from its traditional black paint job. When LEVC launched the new hybrid taxi, it unsurprisingly stuck with its iconic colour.

However, for this year’s tomfoolery the firm revealed the ‘Spring Edition’, which is said to be inspired by the new season’s colours, combining pink, purple, yellow and green to create a vibrant livery.

The game was given away by the LEVC spokesman ‘Paul Yaleg’…

Honda Co-Pilot pet seat

Honda’s effort focuses on pets, with a new front passenger seat design for the owner’s furry friends. The pet harness for cars already exists, but this expands on the idea with a totally new seat that has scratch resistant and waterproof coverings, and extra space for food bowls.

The Japanese firm said the dog seat, pictured here, will be launched first, with adaptations for other pets coming later. This will include a ‘multi-storey seat for gerbils’.

Cater-ham Sevenses

British brand Caterham is best known for building lightweight sports cars, but today announced its move into the food industry.

There are a few inside jokes on this one. The kit is a ‘DIY snack kit’ that you make yourself out of cheese, ham and crackers, a nod to the fact you can buy all the parts for a Caterham and make it yourself.

Then there’s Sevenses, which is a play on the firm’s most famous model, the Seven, and the term Elevenses, a term for taking a light food and drink break at around 11am.

Andersen invisible charger

In the not too distant future, electric vehicle chargers are going to be everywhere. On houses, on streets, on buildings… there’s no getting away from it. Many have nice, modern designs, but some can look quite clunky.

To get around this whole issue, Andersen EV came up with an ‘invisible’ charger, which uses an image of the wall before installation as a cover for the box, hiding it from view.

To be fair to Andersen, it does have the best name pun we’ve seen so far, with quotes coming from head of technology ‘Cameron O’Flage’.