Working Toward the Mobility Society of the Future

Message from the President The Source of Our Value Creation: Value Creation Story: Working toward the Mobility Business Foundations for Value Creation Corporate Data What Makes Us Toyota Society of the Future This Is Japan's Crown! > Making Ever-better Cars > Initiatives to Achieve Carbon Neutrality Software and Connected Initiatives > Commercial Sector Initiatives > Woven City Toyota Times President Toyoda's message to the world: "This is Japan's Crown!" 1955-1962 クラウン 01 The new Crown, Toyota's flagship car, made its world premier on July 15, 2022. President Akio Toyoda spoke about the passion behind the many generations of the Crown to date and what it means to him to deliver the 16th-generation Crown-a car that represents Toyota and Japan and has undergone a major transformation from previous models-to customers around the world. រ CRC 軽率なシャ広くて快適な室 Spacious Confortable Cabin The Story of the Crown The Crown's Foundation: Generations 1 to 3 The Crown's origin can be traced back to Toyota's founding era. 90 years ago, our founder Kiichiro Toyoda decided to take on the challenge of entering the automobile business. Driving this ambitious dream was his philosophy of enriching the lives of the Japanese people by creating a passenger car for the masses. Production of Toyota's longed-for domestic passenger car finally began in January 1952, 15 years after the Company's founding. Kiichiro himself named the vehicle "Crown." Appointed as the Crown's chief engineer was Kenya Nakamura. Driven by a strong. sense of mission, Nakamura put all his energy into developing the Crown. He approached the task with the conviction to do what he thought was right despite strong opposition and criticism. No latest technolo- gy was ignored in the Crown's creation, including a double-wishbone suspension for the front wheels. WN Photographs by Noriaki Mitsuhashi / N-RAK PHOTO AGENCY HREN PH12 いいと思うことは、たとえ周囲に反対されてもやる。 Nakamura had the conviction to do what he thought was right despite criticism. Reminiscing about the launch, Nakamura said, "It was like all of Japan was in the midst of a festival. When I apologized for something that wasn't good enough, customers con- soled me by saying 'It's just a tiny scratch. No big deal.' It was like the whole country was giving me a boost forward." In 1957, the Crown participated in an Australian rally, making it the first Japanese car to race in an international rally. Soon after, Toyota took another bold step by exporting the vehicle to the United States, marking its first passenger car export. Then, in 1959, Toyota opened its Motomachi Plant specifically for producing passenger cars. Building a mass-production plant with an annual capacity of 60,000 units was a major decision, given that Japan's pas- senger car market was still in its infancy. For Toyota, all its post-war challenges started with the first-generation Crown. I would say that car symbolized Japan's recovery and growth momentum. The third-generation Crown was launched in 1967, the year that personal vehicle own- ership began to take off in Japan. Kameo Uchiyamada took the reins as chief engineer after participating in the second-generation car's development under Nakamura's tute- lage. Looking at cars in a parking lot, Uchiyamada noticed that lighter colors seemed to be gaining in popularity. Anticipating that more people would be using a Crown as a personal vehicle, he decided to make the third generation avail- able in white. Widely known as the White Crown, this model became a driving force in Japan's motorization. 1967-1971 クラウン 03 白いクラウン White Chown The New Sanded The years covered by the first three gen- erations of the Crown constitute the car's foundational period. The Crown Comes into Its Own Generations 4 to 8 Over the next two decades, the Crown matured, developing a unique presence sought out by customers. Launched in 1971, the fourth generation adopted daring new styling for a new image in anticipation of intensified competition from foreign cars. However, partly due to quality issues, sales struggled. The lesson learned from this model, and taken to heart to this day, was this: The Crown must first and foremost meet customers' core needs. From that point on, successive chief engineers pursued Crown development with great care to balance innovation and customer expectations. That approach to car-making bore fruit in the development of the seventh and eighth generations, led by chief engineer Kenichi Imaizumi. With its "Someday, a Crown" tagline, the seventh generation became a status symbol in Japan, followed by the eighth generation, which achieved the highest sales volume in Crown history. 07 1983-1987 CROWN いつかはクラウン I joined Toyota in 1984, and my first work- place was the Motomachi Plant. I was involved in the production preparation for the eighth generation, and I still remember how everyone took pride in their work. In the 1980s, the Crown had undoubtedly become Japan's flagship car. However, its growth peaked there. The Crown entered hard times from the ninth generation onward. The Crown's Transformation: Generations 9 to 15 To start with, the Crown's positioning within Toyota changed. In 1989, Toyota launched the Lexus LS in Japan as the Toyota Celsior. This marked a major turning point in the his- tory of the Crown, which had long served as Toyota's flagship car. TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION 10 INTEGRATED REPORT

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