Volkswagen Lover: Toyota fills in details about its future design direction and global platform [feedly]

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Filed under: Concept Cars, Lexus, Scion, Toyota, Design/Style

"In the future, out of 100 customers, we want to excite ten of them instead of not offending all 100."

Almost all of the details about the Toyota New Group Architecture (TNGA) strategy have come out since the initiative was first reported on in March of this year, but Autoblog did learn a few new things about it on a recent trip to Japan. Probably the second-most important detail is that each new segment platform will be based around a common hip point to create an "optimal driving position architecture."

Previously, each car was conceived on its own, so Toyota couldn't extract savings from cars that were close in size. The Etios, sold in Latin America and India, is not much smaller than the Corolla, but the two compacts had two different lead engineers, so they have different hip points and require different manufacturing processes and different kinds of commodity parts like seat belt equipment.

A common hip point and driving position, as well as other moves like the an R&D reorganization and the switch to parts engineered for global approval and pooled buying, will allow Toyota to harmonize parts like airbags, pedal boxes and seat belts to save money. The company expects to save 15 to 20 percent on manufacturing using TNGA, and 20 to 30 percent overall once development is included. Toyota also says it will use the efficiencies gained and money saved to make those commodity parts better, and they will have longer life cycles; while the lifespan of a Corolla won't change, a pedal box might carry over from one generation into a brand new generation. Three new front-wheel-drive cars are expected to ride on the platform in 2015, the Prius being one of them, and its advance estimate of 55 miles per gallon is said to be aided by the TNGA.

Another important objective of the streamlined development programs and common parts is allowing the designers to actually, you know, design a car instead of wrapping a platform in meek metal. Said company CEO Akio Toyoda earlier this year, "Instead of developing what customers would want next, we were making cars that would rake in sales" - cars that were just as popular as they were boring.

That brings us to what we think might be the most important advance provided by the TNGA, revealed in a presentation by company design chief Tokuo Fukuichi: "Before, we made cars so as not to be disliked by anyone. In the future, out of 100 customers, we want to excite ten of them instead of not offending all 100."

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Toyota fills in details about its future design direction and global platform originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 25 Oct 2013 11:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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