Toyota Announces New Vehicle Platforms
#1
Speaks French in Russian
Thread Starter
Toyota Announces New Vehicle Platforms
Toyota announced today that the first product based on a new platform strategy will launch later this year.
The yet-unnamed mid-size front-wheel drive vehicle will be the first to use the Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA), a new, modular approach to vehicle platforms akin to Volkswagen Group’s modular platform strategy that the company says will help it cut the resources it needs by “20 percent or more.” Following the first vehicle, the company will roll out specific new platforms for both front-wheel drive compact and large vehicles as well as rear-wheel drive products.
This year Toyota anticipates that it will be able to reduce the capital investment required to introduce a new vehicle to its production lines by 50 percent compared to what it would have cost in 2008 when the auto industry went into decline.
By 2020, approximately half of Toyota’s global product portfolio is scheduled to shift onto the new platforms.
The company also reiterated its commitment to hybrid powertrains today, saying it anticipates a 15 percent improvement in its hybrid systems by re-thinking its drive unit layout and shrinking their components.
Along with new hybrid parts, the company says it plants to work in concert with suppliers to create powertrain components with its new modular vehicle platforms in mind that will reduce vehicle weight and offer a lower center of gravity.
As the world’s largest automaker, this is a critical milestone for Toyota’s continued success in the foreseeable future. Last year the company reported selling 10.23 million vehicles worldwide ahead of Volkswagen at 10.14 million units and General Motors with 9.92 million. Volkswagen is scrambling to design products that will appeal to drivers in the U.S. where it is struggling to compete while investing heavily in manufacturing operations here.
Meanwhile, Toyota has been able to reap the benefits of a weak yen combined with massive sales that will allow the company to funnel more money into developing products in its increasingly efficient strategy.
The yet-unnamed mid-size front-wheel drive vehicle will be the first to use the Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA), a new, modular approach to vehicle platforms akin to Volkswagen Group’s modular platform strategy that the company says will help it cut the resources it needs by “20 percent or more.” Following the first vehicle, the company will roll out specific new platforms for both front-wheel drive compact and large vehicles as well as rear-wheel drive products.
This year Toyota anticipates that it will be able to reduce the capital investment required to introduce a new vehicle to its production lines by 50 percent compared to what it would have cost in 2008 when the auto industry went into decline.
By 2020, approximately half of Toyota’s global product portfolio is scheduled to shift onto the new platforms.
The company also reiterated its commitment to hybrid powertrains today, saying it anticipates a 15 percent improvement in its hybrid systems by re-thinking its drive unit layout and shrinking their components.
Along with new hybrid parts, the company says it plants to work in concert with suppliers to create powertrain components with its new modular vehicle platforms in mind that will reduce vehicle weight and offer a lower center of gravity.
As the world’s largest automaker, this is a critical milestone for Toyota’s continued success in the foreseeable future. Last year the company reported selling 10.23 million vehicles worldwide ahead of Volkswagen at 10.14 million units and General Motors with 9.92 million. Volkswagen is scrambling to design products that will appeal to drivers in the U.S. where it is struggling to compete while investing heavily in manufacturing operations here.
Meanwhile, Toyota has been able to reap the benefits of a weak yen combined with massive sales that will allow the company to funnel more money into developing products in its increasingly efficient strategy.
#2
thanks!
Here is UK Press release:
http://blog.toyota.co.uk/making-ever...rogress-report
Basically we knew about engines, less costs for development means more various models. It seems that new platforms are built with sporty drive in mind, yay.
It is all coming in next gen Prius that will be revealed by the end of the year... lets see what happens then.
Here is UK Press release:
http://blog.toyota.co.uk/making-ever...rogress-report
Toyota has increased the overall fuel efficiency of its powertrains by about 25 per cent and overall power output by more than 15 per cent, gains achieved by improving the thermal efficiency of its engines and the energy-relay efficiency of transmissions.
Its hybrid systems are also being improved: Toyota is targeting a 15 per cent rise in fuel efficiency thanks to a re-think of the drive unit layout and the design of smaller electric motors, inverters and batteries.
Toyota will begin to introduce its new powertrains this year, while continuing to work on innovative hybrid systems, transmissions and engines.
By rethinking the body structure, Toyota plans first to increase overall body rigidity by as much as 30 to 65 per cent, then to make further gains by using laser welding to join body components.
It will begin to roll out its new platforms with the launch of a mid-size front-wheel drive model this year, followed by specific new platforms for compact and large FWD vehicles and for rear-wheel drive cars.
This year Toyota is aiming to cut the amount of capital investment needed to ready a production line for a new model by about half, compared to 2008 levels.
Toyota is approaching the point where it can expect to reduce the investment needed for a new plant by approximately 40 per cent, compared to 2008 levels.
It is all coming in next gen Prius that will be revealed by the end of the year... lets see what happens then.
#4
Lexus Fanatic
iTrader: (1)
http://www.autonews.com/article/2015...pment-spending
Toyota targets big savings in factory, product-development spending
Company eyes 20% drop in resources used to churn out new vehicles
Hans Greimel
Automotive News
March 26, 2015 - 12:30 am ET -- UPDATED: 3/26/15 6:37 am ET - adds link to statement
TOYOTA CITY, Japan -- Toyota Motor Corp. outlined massive new savings in factory investment and vehicle development, along with fuel efficiency gains, it aims to achieve through an aggressive companywide restructuring being launched this year.
The overhaul, part of a switch to new modularized product platforms, has been years in the making and is designed to fuel the automaker’s expansion beyond 10 million units in global sales annually.
By grouping bigger families of vehicles for production and development, the world’s largest automaker is targeting a 20 percent reduction in the resources needed to churn out new vehicles.
And by using more common parts that require less complex manufacturing configurations, the company aims to slash in half the amount of capital investment needed to prepare a new production line, compared with levels in 2008 before the financial crisis.
The changes will cut the amount of investment to build a new plant by 40 percent, the company announced today in Japan.
New engines
A new generation of engines will be up to 25 percent more fuel efficient than those in today’s Toyota vehicles while generating 15 percent more power, the company added. The company’s next-generation hybrid drivetrain, to debut on the redesigned Prius as early as year-end, will deliver a 15 percent boost in fuel economy.
Toyota President Akio Toyoda is banking on the overhaul in r&d strategy to kick the company his grandfather founded into growth mode after taking a pause on new production expansion.
“This is a period to rework our development and production sites,” said Mitsuhisa Kato, Toyota’s executive vice president in charge of r&d. “We will make a comprehensive new start.”
Toyota executives are counting on the changes in product development to deliver stable growth in an era in which rivals such as Volkswagen AG and Nissan Motor Corp. are rolling out their own modular-based product plans.
Kato, in an update on the plans, said the first cars based on the Toyota New Global Architecture, or TNGA, will be C-segment, front-wheel-drive models debuting later this year. The family of cars includes the Prius hybrid, Corolla and Lexus CT.
New platform
He declined to identify the exact nameplates, but the Prius is expected to be the lead-off vehicle for the new platform.
Toyota’s new TNGA approach focuses on the simultaneous development of multiple models and a heavy reliance on common modular components.
The shift in the company's approach to product development represents the biggest operating change of Toyoda's tenure, which so far has been hobbled by the global 2008-09 financial crisis, a string of worldwide recalls, the 2011 earthquake in Japan and the yen's soaring exchange rate.
Toyota unveiled the product-development strategy in broad terms in 2012 and has since provided periodic updates and details.
The approach will be applied first to three front-wheel-drive vehicle platforms that account for about half of the company's global production volume. Roughly half of the company’s vehicle lineup will be converted under the new strategy by 2020, Kato said.
Streamlined costs
The goal is to cut costs and improve the appeal of Toyota and Lexus vehicles through streamlined engineering.
Kato said savings in time and money will be plowed back into new technologies, better manufacturing processes, slicker designs and more attention to detail and quality.
“The aim is not just cost reduction,” Kato said. “It is making better cars.”
In a major change, Toyota also will use more components designed, engineered and manufactured to global standards instead of proprietary Toyota specifications.
This should aid worldwide procurement from big global suppliers and reduce costs, Kato said.
The company eventually aims to reduce the variety of parts across multiple nameplates by as much as 75 percent, he added.
Leaner manufacturing practices will help deliver some of the efficiency gains targeted.
Toyota’s will switch to “simple and slim” production lines that utilize downsized paint booths and more compact equipment that can be installed on top of the floors. Today’s factories, company executives say, often require large equipment that must be suspended from the ceiling or fixed to the plant floor.
Kato said the manufacturing upgrades will require new investments, but he declined to put a dollar figure on it.
But Toyota said that the new wave of investments will be, on average, lower than similar capital outlays made in 2008.
Risks and rewards
Global standardization of parts and platforms, however, can also create huge headaches when things go wrong.
No company is more aware of this than Toyota, which has been rocked by multiple large-scale recalls in recent years.
But Toyota says that simplifying parts and vehicle design and using fewer variations means more resources can go into developing better designs with less chance of defects.
Toyota’s global vehicle lineup has inflated to some 100 model platforms and 800 engine types, resulting in unnecessary complexity, Kato noted.
“Such increases,” he said, “have made it difficult to make each individual model ever better.”
Company eyes 20% drop in resources used to churn out new vehicles
Hans Greimel
Automotive News
March 26, 2015 - 12:30 am ET -- UPDATED: 3/26/15 6:37 am ET - adds link to statement
TOYOTA CITY, Japan -- Toyota Motor Corp. outlined massive new savings in factory investment and vehicle development, along with fuel efficiency gains, it aims to achieve through an aggressive companywide restructuring being launched this year.
The overhaul, part of a switch to new modularized product platforms, has been years in the making and is designed to fuel the automaker’s expansion beyond 10 million units in global sales annually.
By grouping bigger families of vehicles for production and development, the world’s largest automaker is targeting a 20 percent reduction in the resources needed to churn out new vehicles.
And by using more common parts that require less complex manufacturing configurations, the company aims to slash in half the amount of capital investment needed to prepare a new production line, compared with levels in 2008 before the financial crisis.
The changes will cut the amount of investment to build a new plant by 40 percent, the company announced today in Japan.
New engines
A new generation of engines will be up to 25 percent more fuel efficient than those in today’s Toyota vehicles while generating 15 percent more power, the company added. The company’s next-generation hybrid drivetrain, to debut on the redesigned Prius as early as year-end, will deliver a 15 percent boost in fuel economy.
Toyota President Akio Toyoda is banking on the overhaul in r&d strategy to kick the company his grandfather founded into growth mode after taking a pause on new production expansion.
“This is a period to rework our development and production sites,” said Mitsuhisa Kato, Toyota’s executive vice president in charge of r&d. “We will make a comprehensive new start.”
Toyota executives are counting on the changes in product development to deliver stable growth in an era in which rivals such as Volkswagen AG and Nissan Motor Corp. are rolling out their own modular-based product plans.
Kato, in an update on the plans, said the first cars based on the Toyota New Global Architecture, or TNGA, will be C-segment, front-wheel-drive models debuting later this year. The family of cars includes the Prius hybrid, Corolla and Lexus CT.
New platform
He declined to identify the exact nameplates, but the Prius is expected to be the lead-off vehicle for the new platform.
Toyota’s new TNGA approach focuses on the simultaneous development of multiple models and a heavy reliance on common modular components.
The shift in the company's approach to product development represents the biggest operating change of Toyoda's tenure, which so far has been hobbled by the global 2008-09 financial crisis, a string of worldwide recalls, the 2011 earthquake in Japan and the yen's soaring exchange rate.
Toyota unveiled the product-development strategy in broad terms in 2012 and has since provided periodic updates and details.
The approach will be applied first to three front-wheel-drive vehicle platforms that account for about half of the company's global production volume. Roughly half of the company’s vehicle lineup will be converted under the new strategy by 2020, Kato said.
Streamlined costs
The goal is to cut costs and improve the appeal of Toyota and Lexus vehicles through streamlined engineering.
Kato said savings in time and money will be plowed back into new technologies, better manufacturing processes, slicker designs and more attention to detail and quality.
“The aim is not just cost reduction,” Kato said. “It is making better cars.”
In a major change, Toyota also will use more components designed, engineered and manufactured to global standards instead of proprietary Toyota specifications.
This should aid worldwide procurement from big global suppliers and reduce costs, Kato said.
The company eventually aims to reduce the variety of parts across multiple nameplates by as much as 75 percent, he added.
Leaner manufacturing practices will help deliver some of the efficiency gains targeted.
Toyota’s will switch to “simple and slim” production lines that utilize downsized paint booths and more compact equipment that can be installed on top of the floors. Today’s factories, company executives say, often require large equipment that must be suspended from the ceiling or fixed to the plant floor.
Kato said the manufacturing upgrades will require new investments, but he declined to put a dollar figure on it.
But Toyota said that the new wave of investments will be, on average, lower than similar capital outlays made in 2008.
Risks and rewards
Global standardization of parts and platforms, however, can also create huge headaches when things go wrong.
No company is more aware of this than Toyota, which has been rocked by multiple large-scale recalls in recent years.
But Toyota says that simplifying parts and vehicle design and using fewer variations means more resources can go into developing better designs with less chance of defects.
Toyota’s global vehicle lineup has inflated to some 100 model platforms and 800 engine types, resulting in unnecessary complexity, Kato noted.
“Such increases,” he said, “have made it difficult to make each individual model ever better.”
#5
Lexus Fanatic
While many of their their newer models are indeed superior in some ways to the older ones (handling, fuel-mileage, steering-response, safety-features) than their predecessors, they also, IMO, don't seem to have quite the same solidness of materials and assembly. The biggest single decline, IMO, has been with the latest Toyota Avalon....which admittedly looks nice inside but, in many ways, is disappointing.
Last edited by mmarshall; 03-26-15 at 06:15 PM.
#7
Lexus Fanatic
Originally Posted by article
Toyota’s global vehicle lineup has inflated to some 100 model platforms and 800 engine types, resulting in unnecessary complexity, Kato noted.
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#8
Lexus Champion
What's next for large? I am guessing Camry, Avalon, ES? Or will the RX/TX be the first to come on the new TNGA platform?
What's next for rear-wheel drive? Could it be LS?
#9
Lexus Fanatic
Originally Posted by Sulu
What's next for rear-wheel drive? Could it be LS?
#10
Is this the next-gen Prius? I had read that the Prius is coming on the new platform. But my first impression of "mid-size front-wheel drive vehicle" was a replacement for the Avensis, yet rumours out of Europe are that it will not get replaced.
What's next for compact? Does that include sub-compacts (perhaps Yaris)?
What's next for large? I am guessing Camry, Avalon, ES? Or will the RX/TX be the first to come on the new TNGA platform?
What's next for rear-wheel drive? Could it be LS?
What's next for compact? Does that include sub-compacts (perhaps Yaris)?
What's next for large? I am guessing Camry, Avalon, ES? Or will the RX/TX be the first to come on the new TNGA platform?
What's next for rear-wheel drive? Could it be LS?
Camry should be same platform as prius.
#11
More info trickles out... all these new model efficiencies and cheaper plant setup will lead to more low volume models, which toyota and lexus need.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/toyota-e...ecall-spinout/
In a demonstration at one of Toyota's plants, it showed a variety of technologies it had developed to grow ever leaner while making good cars, ranging from better synthetic leathers to shinier paint jobs.
Toyota said it had programmed robots to simulate the delicate hand movements of a craftsman to shape a car's body. It also created its own way of screwing with lasers that shortened the welding of each screw from 2 seconds to 0.3 seconds. It shortened the line for stamping a metal part from 65 feet to 6 feet by making the machines smaller.
Toyota said it will continue to focus on keeping costs down, while taking on new steps such as using existing plants and facilities to carry out the changes.
Production lines will be simplified and slimmed down, downsizing facilities such as painting booths, and switching to equipment that sits on the plant floor, rather than being suspended from above, as is standard today.
Toyota said it had programmed robots to simulate the delicate hand movements of a craftsman to shape a car's body. It also created its own way of screwing with lasers that shortened the welding of each screw from 2 seconds to 0.3 seconds. It shortened the line for stamping a metal part from 65 feet to 6 feet by making the machines smaller.
Toyota said it will continue to focus on keeping costs down, while taking on new steps such as using existing plants and facilities to carry out the changes.
Production lines will be simplified and slimmed down, downsizing facilities such as painting booths, and switching to equipment that sits on the plant floor, rather than being suspended from above, as is standard today.
#12
Lexus Test Driver
Sounds like standard evolving for any of today's companies. Nothing too out of the ordinary here. What is a bit sad is Toyota's tardiness on bringing out new engines, transmissions, and tech (Honda too). Lucky for them they have reputation and reliability to fall back on while competition hops over them in other areas. This has more or less been the scenario for decades. I guess they are content with it all, and it works well enough to keep it status quo.
#13
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Is this the next-gen Prius? I had read that the Prius is coming on the new platform. But my first impression of "mid-size front-wheel drive vehicle" was a replacement for the Avensis, yet rumours out of Europe are that it will not get replaced.
What's next for compact? Does that include sub-compacts (perhaps Yaris)?
What's next for large? I am guessing Camry, Avalon, ES? Or will the RX/TX be the first to come on the new TNGA platform?
What's next for rear-wheel drive? Could it be LS?
What's next for compact? Does that include sub-compacts (perhaps Yaris)?
What's next for large? I am guessing Camry, Avalon, ES? Or will the RX/TX be the first to come on the new TNGA platform?
What's next for rear-wheel drive? Could it be LS?
#14
Sounds like standard evolving for any of today's companies. Nothing too out of the ordinary here. What is a bit sad is Toyota's tardiness on bringing out new engines, transmissions, and tech (Honda too). Lucky for them they have reputation and reliability to fall back on while competition hops over them in other areas. This has more or less been the scenario for decades. I guess they are content with it all, and it works well enough to keep it status quo.
#15
Lexus Test Driver
did you miss the memo that they are updating probably all of them within next 12 months? Definetly not ordinary, heck not much in there is ordinary at all - biggest and by far most profitable manufacturer in the world has developed means to make their cars 20%-50% cheaper to design and manufacture. Thats not ordinary.
"Honda announces new line of Earth Dream engines..."
"Ford announces new line of Ecoboost engines..."
"GM set to introduce a new 2.0T engine across the line..."
"VW/Audi produces new 1.8T engine to fill out lesser models..."
BTW, are we going to see the extra 20-50% savings in manufacturing as savings in our pockets off the sticker price? LOL to that. This translates to comsumer benefits as well as GM cancelling their 10 year warranty and saying there was no customer demand for it. How we benefit from all these things I'd like to learn more about.
The thing is here, I don't jump for joy when I read these glorious headlines. Toyota is no more almighty than any other manufacture. Where they really stand out is reliability and that's where and why I bank with them.