While a motor vehicle is many things to many people, Toyota president and CEO Koji Sato is firmly of the opinion that cars should be enjoyable. “A car is not a car if it’s not fun. That’s why we will never allow our cars to become commodities,” Sato said, according to Toyota in-house publication Toyota Times.
According to Sato, the time of “cars simply being sold by having better [catalogue specifications]” are gone, and concurred in response to an observation that the industry is seeing fewer cars which are exciting and fun to drive.
“We can no longer sell cars just with model updates, slightly better fuel efficiency, or new designs. It comes down to your passion for making products that move people’s hearts. Of course, sports cars need to be sleek, but unless that same passion can be found in other types of cars, you won’t be able to reach customers,” Sato continued.
It is that mindset which Sato intends to instil in each of Toyota’s project teams. “That is the Toyota I want to create, and I will continue working on that this year,” the Japanese manufacturer’s president and CEO said.
Sato took to the post of president and CEO after his predecessor Akio Toyoda stepped down in April 2023, after Toyoda had held the position since 2009.
Enthusiasts of fun-to-drive cars should be able to take comfort in Sato’s position on what cars should be, given that he succeeds Toyoda who is a keen racer, having entered races such as the Nürburgring 24 Hours in 2010 with the Lexus LFA and more recently under the Rookie Racing banner in a hydrogen-fuelled Corolla.
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