Toyota has been a “boring brand” for years. Today, he wants to save the internal combustion car by turning to its simplest and most beautiful thing: its sound.

• Akio Toyoda tried to break with the “boring brand” legacy that the company had been carrying.

• Together with Subaru and Mazda, it develops new internal combustion engines for sports cars.

In 1997, the first Toyota Prius came to market. About 20 years before the DGT called hybrid cars ECO, and the sticker decided whether we could move to what we now call low emission zones, or ZBEs.

The project, of course, started earlier. We found the germ in 1993, it was called Project G21 (21st century), and it gave birth to a car that changed everything. “We couldn’t use traditional methods, and since we couldn’t take a market approach at the time, we decided to offer completely new technology“, – Toyota explains.

The ultimate goal was to have a car that was environmentally friendly but used technology that could be adopted by the masses. The Japanese company insists that there is no point in having the cleanest car in the world if the buyer can’t buy it.

This approach is undoubtedly the same one the company advocated for the electric car. Your 1:6:90 rule is based on this principle. But beyond your current view on electric car

The arrival of the Prius also changed the way some drivers perceived the brand.

The company was criticized as a boring brand. By prioritizing efficiency above any other value, Toyotas made very reliable and economical cars, but they also carried the label of a “boring car” or “gadget.” In the 2000s, Toyota focused on loudness rather than any emotion.

And this produced good financial results, but very little in terms of an attractive image.

Appeal to the simplest

This whole story is not something we made up. Akio Toyoda himself, who was the brand’s CEO and is now the CEO of the Toyota Group, has publicly reflected on this very topic several times.

In 2017, he addressed the press with a message: “Toyota will no longer be a boring brand.” nightmare This must be a recurring theme because last year Toyoda spoke in similar terms again, assuring that his intention was to avoid at all costs Toyota being seen as just another generic brand.

To reverse this perception, Toyota has launched some of the most interesting sports cars in recent years. Some position them as true purist cars, while others appeal to nostalgia. While various cars with their own individuality are clearly on the decline, Toyota has chosen the opposite path.

Experts who This will not be an easy task. and, most importantly, the marginal Japanese company partnered with Subaru to produce the Toyota GT86 (now GR86) and Subaru BRZ. The alliance with BMW brought the Toyota Supra (which came with the BMW Z4) back to life, and inside Toyota we have a rally-flavored car again with the Toyota GR Yaris.

As the market moves toward the electric vehicle, Toyota has shown its dissatisfaction with this new path. It has done so actively and passively, even ensuring that the technology will not reach more than a third of global sales.

For this reason, the company continues to develop internal combustion engines. The new generation, they note, two engines The 1.5- and 2.0-liter four-cylinder engines will be more compact, efficient and powerful than the current generation. Although no departure date has been confirmed, Financial Times They say that they will not be expected before 2026.

We already knew that Toyota was involved in developing new fuels, but now we can assume that these will be the units that will be installed in their most powerful cars. In a video published on the YouTube channel Toyota Timesone of the brand’s communication channels, special attention is paid to the sound of the cars.

In the video you can see a test of the car in development (it is covered), from the interior of which we can guess that it is a Lexus IS. Pushed to the limit on the Fuji Speedway track, owned by Toyota, the brand aims to convey the beauty of the engine sound. In fact, in the video itself they also refer to other legendary sounds, such as the sound of the Mazda 787B.

In fact, the brand, together with Subaru and Mazda, is immersed in the search for new engines that can be used with synthetic fuel or hydrogen combustion retain the essence of driving a car with an internal combustion engine, but at the same time produce minimal emissions.

The problem is huge, as synthetic fuels are expected to be particularly expensive, and using liquid hydrogen to burn in combustion engines is a logistical challenge and very inefficient. Regardless, Toyota recognizes that there is a market niche that most brands seem to be missing. And in a market full of electric vehicles, these sportier (albeit more expensive) offerings could be well received.

Photo | Toyota

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