Aussies and Australia to star in Toyota future?

Opinion

Hands up who has noticed a change in the visibility of Toyota in the automotive landscape. No, not the mile-long dealer’s yards as impressive as they are; we’re talking about the company’s burgeoning local engineering resources and (at last) a genuine intention to embrace performance.

CarPoint gained an insight into the change afoot at Toyota very recently. In one-on-ones with senior Toyota Australia management we have been given a heads-up on the agenda behind Toyota’s Australian International Motor Show star, the Aurion Sports Concept (more

It would of course be easy to dismiss this activity as Toyota trying to promote itself as a good corporate citizen. However, these programs along with the high-profile Aurion promotion are symptomatic of a far more profound change that embraces even the highest level of Toyota management in Japan.

Internally, Toyota has always run its foreign outposts as scaled down replicas of its Japan business with management outposts staffed by loyal Japanese keeping a tight rein on any local deviations from the corporate line.

Under such a model, Australians would have every reason to perceive the company’s latest programs as window dressing for a mini-Japan operating in Australia’s midst. Nothing could be further from Toyota’s new internal culture. The above programs and others are serious in a manner never seen before in a Japanese company based in Australia.

As hard as it is to believe, according to our management source, despite huge global success Toyota has moved the top level of its Japanese management team 'sideways'. The rationale was that they were no longer hungry for new success. The ‘replacement’ management team has since redefined a new Toyota that harnesses the diverse resources of its outposts for the greater good of the global corporation.

For Toyota Australia, which has always been a highly regarded Toyota outpost, this has delivered a new freedom to explore new design directions and unprecedented resources.

As Paul Beranger, head of Toyota Style Australia observed in the media recently: “We have the world’s best parts bin at our disposal.”

The Aurion Sports Concept is a preview of what’s coming in March 2007 but CarPoint has been told it’s only a fraction of the excitement that Australians will see when the Prodrive-owned Toyota Racing Developments (TRD, more

As noted above, Beranger has describes the new operation as the company’s motorsport and special vehicle developments rolled into one. TRD’s internal agenda is to challenge local ideas about what constitutes premium performance vehicles and "move the goalposts".

As a start a power output of 250kW for the first Aurion performance model is well within reach, Toyota sources claim

Further, our management source suggests that a career path for a young engineer or designer within Toyota Australia is now as open-ended as one within Holden and Ford. Australians have traditionally been able to move to the highest positions in Detroit; in the new Toyota it is much more likely a ‘gaijin’ can reach such levels in Japan. No wonder then that Toyota is now looking to play an even more active role in nuturing young Aussie automotive talent.

Ill-fated Avalon aside, the Aurion program marks the first Toyota sold in Australia with significant deviation in styling and engineering from an offshore product. Under this new culture, former Wheels Young Designer of the Year, Nick Hogios (pictured, in suit with rally stars Neal Bates, Coral Taylor, Simon and Sue Evans and Toyota VIPs Lauren Jackson and Laura Csortan) worked with Japanese designers in Nagoya and a local team at Toyota in Melbourne to develop the Aurion design.

If the Aurion has a bold Australian look (and the Aurion Sports Concept more so), it’s partly because an earlier Hogios assignment  (before joining Toyota) was developing FPV’s design language including the FPV logo. Hogios also worked on the corporate look of the FPV vehicle range that extended to the BA Falcon race car -- Ford’s first internal racecar program in decades.

Mainstream Australian performance car fans who once felt secure in dismissing Toyota releases as “rice burners” will soon be forced to re-assess this view when Toyota’s local design studio comes on stream early in 2007. And FPV and HSV better take note…

According to our source, the extent of the autonomy of the new Toyota Australia engineering operation (and its influence outside our shores) suggests that if Beranger and co ultimately need a rear-drive or all-wheel drive platform for Toyota to be seen as a serious local performance player then that is what he will get… Sooner rather than later.