Hiroki Nakaji

Operating Officer, Vice President, Executive VP, Chief Technology Officer & Director, Toyota Motor Corp

Hiroki Nakajima About the All New Toyota Fortuner's Design | AutoMania

🎥 Jul 29, 2016 📺 AutoMania ⏱ 5m 👁 1389 views

Here's what the Toyota's Executive chief engineer, Hiroki Nakajima, says about the recently launched All New Toyota Fortuner.

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About Hiroki Nakaji

Hiroki Nakaji, who serves as an operating officer, vice president, executive vice president, chief technology officer, and director at Toyota Motor, participated in the company's New Management Policy & Direction Announcement on December 7, 2023. During a Q&A session, he responded to a question about the diversity of vehicles on display, stating that the variety, from trucks to sports cars, demonstrated Toyota's position as a full-lineup manufacturer and reflected the company's diverse customer needs. He said that innovation emerges from such diversity and described the variety of "car love" among employees as an indicator of Toyota's flexibility and an environment conducive to innovation. In a 2023 interview with Nippon TV, new Toyota president Koji Sato admitted that the company needed to work on its electric vehicle strategy. Under Sato, the firm adopted a goal of selling 1.5 million EVs per year by 2026. Sato said the company would make efforts to lower the price of EVs to the range of hybrids. Earlier, in 2016, Nakaji, then serving as chief engineer and managing director of Toyota in India, discussed the design of the second-generation Toyota Fortuner. He explained that the company decided to change the front fascia completely after customer complaints that the previous model looked too similar to the Hilux despite a higher price. He described the design concept as "tough and cool," noting that the body line was slightly kicked up at the rear to enhance the vehicle's image. He attributed the ability to create a distinct appearance while sharing many parts to the Toyota New Global Architecture.

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Transcript (1 segments)

Hiroki Nakaji0:16

So, the I play in the previous model. As you may know, the previous Highlander and Fortuna, from a part commonization point of view, we completely utilize the same front mask, particularly on the hood panel and other portions. So, it had a very similar style design, the front feature, compared with the previous Fortuna and the Hilux. Some customers had a strong complaint because unfortunately, the SUV and many, many equipment implementations, in that sense, price-wise, higher than the Hilux. However, from a style design point of view, very similar, so we decided to change completely the front face. But the key point is that the part commonization ratio is completely the same as the previous model. For example, the hood panel and the front pillar area, front windshield glass, also the front door is completely the same as the new Highlander and Fortuna. However, thanks to our style design effort, we can provide a completely different image to the customer. This is what we call Toyota New Global Architecture. So, in that sense, anyway, the most important thing is how to differentiate the pickup and SUV to enhance SUV preference. So, a key feature of the SUV style design is how to improve the coolness. This is our style design concept: tough and cool. Tough is the most important thing for those types of SUVs. This is how we can for any ability we have. So, in that sense, how to enhance the rugged image. However, almost all customers are willing to drive on-road, particularly the women. So, in that sense, how to keep, how to improve the coolness at the same time. So, this is our concept: tough and cool. So, in that sense, for the beltline portion, we slightly kick up the rear portion to enhance, automatically enhance the coolness image, I believe.