Working Toward the Mobility Society of the Future
Message from
the President
The Source of Our
Value Creation:
What Makes Us Toyota
Value Creation Story:
Working toward the Mobility
Society of the Future
Business Foundations
for Value Creation
Corporate Data
> Making Ever-better Cars > Initiatives to Achieve Carbon Neutrality
Software and Connected Initiatives > Commercial Sector Initiatives > Woven City
Then, after Japan's economic bubble burst
in 1991, the Japanese economy fell into
recession, dragging down with it demand for
luxury vehicles. At the same time, competition
from imports intensified. The ninth and 10th
generations of the Crown hit the market amid
these harsh headwinds. Chief engineer
Hiroyuki Watanabe inherited the chief engineer
role from Imaizumi of the "Someday, a Crown"
days after working under him. Watanabe thus
came to experience both prosperous and diffi-
cult times for the Crown. With his era, the
Crown entered a period of transformation.
In the 2000s, Toyota accelerated its advanc-
es overseas, pursuing greater scale in sales and
production. This gradually led to prioritizing
models and markets that promised larger sales
and profits.
With Crown sales in steady decline, there
was growing concern that the model's end.
might be near. This sparked a sense of crisis
that drove the development of the 12th-
generation Crown, launched in 2003.
12.
CROWN
2003-2008
ZERO CROWN
Mitsuhisa Kato, who headed development,
said at the time, "There's no way I'm going to
let the Crown end on my watch." With this
determination, Kato took on the challenge of
rebuilding the Crown. He redeveloped the
platform and engine from scratch to achieve
world-class driving performance.
Right around that time, I had just started
driving training under my mentor, Hiromu
Naruse. I still remember experiencing firsthand
the driving performance of the Zero Crown.
The Zero Crown indicated a new direction-a
Crown with advanced driving performance.
In 2008, the global financial crisis struck,
and I was appointed president after the
Company plunged into the red. Despite the
difficulties facing Toyota, we persisted in striv-
ing to transform the Crown.
"Let's make a car that attracts people at first
glance! To do that, you can change whatever
you want." That's how I encouraged the devel-
opment team to redesign the Crown. We
transformed the vehicle styling, renewed the
vehicle platform, and honed the driving perfor-
mance at the Nürburgring. By doing so, we
created the 14th-generation "Reborn Crown"
and the 15th-generation "Connected Crown."
2018-2022
15
CROWN BEYOND
Over the past 20 years, we have explored
Crown's evolution while facing the challenge
of the changing times.
A New Crown Story
Then came the time to develop the 16th genera-
tion. To draw a comparison with Japanese histo-
ry, Japan's final feudal dynasty happened to end
after 15 generations. I was resolved to do what-
ever it took to create a new era for the Crown.
So, I asked the development team, "Why
don't we go back to our origins and seriously
think about the next Crown?" With that,
development of the 16th generation got
under way. Taking these words to heart, the
Crown team started revisiting the passion put
into the Crown by past chief engineers.
Kenya Nakamura is quoted as saying,
"Selling things to people with conviction
means creating something that feels good in
one's heart and has within it the true heart of
the customer. Only when a customer gets
behind the wheel of such a car will they say:
'This has got my attention. This is what I
want to drive.' The chief engineer's role is to
offer cars like that to the world."
This is the origin of our chief engineer sys-
tem, and I believe it is also the origin of our
continued efforts to make ever-better cars.
Two years after they began, the Crown team
has created a Crown for the coming era. When
I first saw this new Crown, I said "This looks
interesting." And, when I got out of the car after
driving it, I said, "Now that is a Crown."
Today, a new Crown is born-the 16th
generation. To us, it is similar in significance
to when Japan welcomed the modern age
about 150 years ago.
The Development of the New Crown
Hiroki Nakajima
President, Mid-size Vehicle Company
I'd like to tell the story of the new
Crown's development.
A little more than two years ago, we
were working on a partial redesign of the
15th-generation Crown. I shared details of
the project with President Toyoda, but he
did not approve it, saying: "Is this truly
going to result in evolution? Why don't we
start thinking more seriously? Maybe we
should skip a partial redesign."
Looking back, I believe those words
marked the true beginning of the develop-
ment of the 16th-generation Crown. We
started by revisiting the passions of succes-
sive chief engineers to thoroughly reexamine
what the Crown was all about.
We realized anew that there were no fixed
rules governing the shape of the car or its
drive system. The only common thread
since the beginning was the engineers' spirit
of innovation and challenge. This prompted
us to understand how we had tied ourselves
down with arbitrary rules over time.
At the time, I recalled the two messages
President Toyoda had been repeating
since taking office: "Let's make ever-better
cars," and "let's aim to be the best in
town, not the best in the world." I realized
that the Crown is a long-time seller
because the past chief engineers con-
stantly challenged themselves to create an
ever-better Crown with a best-in-town
focus to make customers happy.
This caused us to drastically change
our approach. We freed ourselves from
set ways of thinking and started exploring
a new Crown that would make customers
happy. That's how the Crown Crossover's
development began.
President Toyoda gave us the green
light when we showed him the vehicle's
shape and packaging. Around that time,
he also gave us a new task. He said:
"Why don't we also think about a sedan?"
Frankly, I couldn't believe what I had
just heard. But, I thought it was because
he saw our changes since deciding to
skip a partial redesign. We had a different
mindset because we returned to the
Crown's origin, and he wanted us to apply
that mindset to making a sedan version.
From there, we proposed four different
models, thinking that we also needed a
hatchback and a station wagon to meet
diverse needs. This is how we came to
the final lineup.
Photographs by Noriaki Mitsuhashi / N-RAK PHOTO AGENCY
TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION
11
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