Toyota is the second biggest car group in the world in terms of sales and its range of brand names adorns the grilles of the most spartan pick-ups as well as of range-topping saloons and nippy city cars on all five continents. Wahei Hirai, head of Toyota design since 2004, explains to Auto & Design the trends and ideas that underlie an increasingly sophisticated \u201cJapanese-ness\u201d in the company’s products. The interview is followed by a description of the four concept cars presented by the Toyota group at the Tokyo Show.<\/p>\n
After its Pm and i-Unit projects, Toyota presents the i-Swing, a sort of suit of armour in which to move around the urban jungle in total freedom. Based on the gyroscope mechanism, the i-Swing can run on either two or three wheels.<\/p>\n
With a balanced mix of research elements and concrete solutions applicable to standard production, the FSC was the most realistic of the concept cars presented by Toyota. Half way between a saloon and an MPV, the model brings with it all the features of the brand’s styling language today.<\/p>\n
A small city car with boxy side and rear styling, but a more distinctive treatment at the front, the Fine-X is a concentrate of \u201cdreams for the future\u201d. Fuel cell propulsion, the four steered wheels on independent axles and convenient on-board access are the main features of the city car.<\/p>\n
Hybrid petrol and electric propulsion and the balanced line of a seasoned flagship. With these premises, the Lexus LF-Sh, the Group’s future luxury range topper, resumes its bid to give sleepless nights to European sector leaders. Wahei Hirai has insisted on referring to the model as a concept car but he is just going through the motions because the car is at least 90 per cent definitive.<\/p>\n
The article continues in Auto & Design no. 156<\/strong><\/small><\/p>\n<\/div>[images picture_size=”fixed” hover_type=”none” autoplay=”no” columns=”5″ column_spacing=”13″ scroll_items=”” show_nav=”yes” mouse_scroll=”no” border=”yes” lightbox=”yes” class=”” id=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/1502200601_Toyota-269×300.jpg” alt=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/1502200602_Toyota-300×143.jpg” alt=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/1502200603_Toyota-300×143.jpg” alt=””][\/images]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [images picture_size=”fixed” hover_type=”none” autoplay=”no” columns=”5″ column_spacing=”13″ scroll_items=”” show_nav=”yes” mouse_scroll=”no” border=”yes” lightbox=”yes” class=”” id=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/1502200601_Toyota-269×300.jpg” alt=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/1502200602_Toyota-300×143.jpg” alt=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/1502200603_Toyota-300×143.jpg” alt=””][\/images]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","category-concept-en"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 10:27:42","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3728\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}