Sponsored Feature: The Pursuit of Perfection

Driving in India is intense. The road surface changes every few kilometres. The transitions between smooth roads, cratered lunar-like surfaces, single and dual carriageways and state highways that resemble village roads come abruptly. And then there’s the ubiquitous chaos of animals, vehicles being driven on the wrong side and most drivers deciding that the law is for everyone but themselves. It was through this that the engineers from Toyota decided to execute the Indian leg of the Toyota 5 Continents Drive.

The Drive

Toyota’s drive to build the best cars is well known. Today, it sells some of the most trusted, reliable and high-quality vehicles in the world. Toyota believes that its cars can be even better. But Toyota knew that working on vehicles in workshops, simulations and test tracks wouldn’t be enough. Toyota’s people needed to experience and study its cars in real-world conditions. And thus was born the idea of the 5 Continents Drive. Flagged off in 2014, the drive has made its way across every continent and in 2019, finally made its way to Asia. After a quick tour of the Middle East, the team from Toyota arrived to take on the streets of India.

Go and See

The main reason behind the drive was to understand what Toyota customers experience on the road and to understand their needs better. This made the Indian stage of the drive particularly crucial to Toyota. Not only is India an important market, but Indian customers are also some of the most quality-conscious, price-sensitive, and value-conscious in the world. Couple that with the demanding Indian road conditions and you get a testing ground like nowhere else in the world. India is where Toyota’s “Genchi Genbutsu” philosophy (where employees go to the source to get the facts) paid dividends. To this end, an international team of 71 employees from Toyota Motor Corporation, Suzuki, Daihatsu and local affiliates set off on a 4,438km journey across India. The vehicles used were the Innova Crysta, Innova Touring Sport, Fortuner, Camry HV, Glanza, Yaris, Land Cruiser 200, Corolla Altis, and Suzuki Vitara Brezza.

Understanding India

Nine cars and trucks were flagged off from the Toyota Kirloskar Motor plant at Bidadi near Bengaluru in September 2019. Over the next ten days, this convoy made its way through Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and finally, New Delhi. India came as a bit of a shock to the Japanese. But they had processes in place and were prepared to deal with anything. Every time a car went past a reckless driver, random object or animal on the road, they radioed that information to the team. This was done even if the car following was a few meters away or hundreds of meters behind. The teams followed this process efficiently and reliably irrespective of the number of times it was required of them. It probably this level of attention to detail that makes each Toyota car efficient, reliable and safe.

The teams had a few interesting takes on their experiences too. Yoshikazu Sahara of the Advanced Vehicle Engineering Development Division said, “The horns seem to have emotions. If you know the intention behind the sound, you get the strange sensation that you are listening to cars having a conversation.” After observing the conditions in several states, the team noted that due to a shortage of electricity, wide acceptance of EVs may be difficult. But hydrogen fuel-cell based cars may have potential. They also saw that cars in India have to deal with drastic changes in road conditions and climate, and this was why Indians demanded greater reliability from vehicles than the Japanese. The team also made pertinent observations to improve the cars they offer in India as well with points ranging from the angle of A-pillars to enhance visibility to a tighter turning radius to deal with our road conditions.

Our infamous speed breakers caused some concern too. While the SUVs and MPVs drove over them easily, the bigger bumps grazed the underbody of the hatchback and the sedans. Each car had four passengers and a fully loaded boot, so that may have been a contributing factor too. But the engineers didn’t take this as casually as we do. They spent some time on their hands and knees carefully examining the cars to make sure that there wasn’t any significant damage.

Driving across India helped the team learn the importance of getting local feedback too. They discovered the true nature of their customers and now want to create a system that collects local feedback and incorporates it into making cars better. Toyota’s Quest to Discover Real India proved to be a worthy endeavour and one that promises to result in cars that will be even better than the Toyota’s sold today.

Despite the challenging conditions, every Toyota, from the hatchback, the sedans to the SUVs, made it across the drive. Whether it was the narrow, tree-lined mountains of Coorg, the highway to Kolhapur, the incessant rainfall in the Western Ghats, or the harsh climate of Rajasthan, the cars performed beautifully. They proved over and over again that a Toyota badge means peace of mind. And now, Toyota is working to improve those very cars.

The intensity of India was matched by the efficiency of the Japanese. Shota Oshima from the External and Public Affairs Division, with firm resolve, said, “Some people may see the 5 Continents Drive Project as a type of tourism. But I can say that the Toyota cars that have experienced the 5 Continents Drive will become better cars”. There’s no doubt that Toyota’s methods work. And we’re looking forward to the new breed of cars that will emerge as a result of this drive.