This little speed demon is called the Supra,
the Supra is a two seat sports car stuffed with BMW parts that can
go from a complete standstill to 60 miles per hour in an estimated 4.1 seconds. And it is, of all things, a Toyota. The car just began rolling out
to dealerships in July of 2019. And it's another step in Toyota's
strategy to inject excitement back into its brand. The Supra is a revival first
produced in the late 1970s. The nameplate gained fame as a high
performance car in the 1990s and is still regarded as something of
an archetypal Japanese sports car. It was made famous in part by its
prominent role in the Fast and Furious movie franchise. The massive Japanese automaker brought back
the classic super name for the 2020 model year and ended at fans around
the world eager for a double dose of sports car nostalgia and speed. But while the Supra has generated a
lot of attention, the truth is that Toyota is far better known to most people
as the maker of cars like this. This is the Toyota Corolla, the
best selling vehicle of all time. Toyota has become one of the
world's largest automakers by churning out cars, trucks and sport utilities like
this, affordable, reliable and safe. But over the years, it has also
grown a reputation for being kind of boring. A scion of the Toyota family,
Akio Toyoda, now has the reins at the company founded by his ancestors. And he gave a severe
order, no more boring cars. Now the Japanese giant is doubling
down on speed, adventure and cutting edge technology in a bid to survive
and succeed in an era where global automakers face tremendous uncertainty
over the future. Toyota is hoping it can imbue
its vehicles with passion and excitement while preserving the legacy of
high quality and affordability. It has spent the better
part of a century perfecting. Toyota Motor was founded in 1937 by key
issue to Toyota, the son of the famed Japanese inventor and industrialist
Saki Toyota, who made his fortune building looms
for weaving fabric. The business became especially successful after
the outbreak of World War 1, which gave a boost to the Japanese
cotton industry at the end of World War One led to a downturn in
the Japanese cotton and fabric businesses. That was worsened by the
Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. The Financial Panic of 1927 and
the Worldwide Depression in 1929. On the other hand, the earthquake
created a massive demand for cars. The disaster had devastated the Japanese
rail system, and the country began importing choices from Ford Motor Company
to convert into buses for public transport. Toyota created the automotive production
division of Toyota Automatic Loom Works. On September 1st, 1933, and soon after
began plans to build a manufacturing facility. He had absolutely no
experience making automobiles. So he purchased vehicles from Ford,
Chevrolet and Chrysler and took them apart, looking for models on which
he could base his own design. He also recruited engineers from
Japanese car companies and local subsidiaries of American carmakers
such as GM. The company's first production passenger car,
the Model AA, was launched in 1936 and a separate company, Toyota
Motor, was formed the next year. Soon, though, Japan was embroiled in World
War Two and the country's auto industry shifted production to help
with the war effort. The war left Toyota
a battered company. Production was tightly restricted, materials were
in short supply and one of its factories had been
bombed at the war's end. In its aftermath, though, Toyota
began making the trucks. The company believed Japan would
need to rebuild itself. Toyota also got a big break
in 1950 when the U.S. Army placed a large order for
trucks needed in the Korean War. Toyota almost doubled monthly production
from 650 vehicles to 1000 vehicles. Slowly, Toyota remade itself, but it realized
it had to expand beyond Japan if it wanted to survive and
grow over the long term. And to do that. The automaker looked to the massive and
fast growing market in the United States. The cars 1950s America is best known
for our massive vehicles, such as the 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air and
the 1958 Ford Fairlane Skyliner. But Toyota executives noticed sales of
compact cars were growing and just about all of them were European. The company figured there was an
opportunity for its own relatively small vehicle. The Toyopet Crown, a sales office,
was opened in a former Rambler dealership in Southern California. But the Tokyopet crown was a flop,
and Toyota's newly hired American staff saw the disaster coming. The first problem was that the crown was
built to drive at low speeds over Japan's shoddy roads. But the car was ill suited to U.S. roads, which were smooth and new,
and where cars could reach highway speeds of 60 miles per hour. Toyota sold 287 Crowns in 1958. Sales tripled in 1959, but the company
soon pulled the car from the market and regrouped. Toyota was serious about
understanding the U.S. market, though, and began to
design cars specifically for U.S. buyers. And it worked. By 1967, Toyota was the third best
selling import brand in the United States. In 1973, it set up a design
studio in Southern California called Calty Design Research to develop vehicles that
best suited the tastes of the American market. Today, that group has two offices. The Newport Beach, California studio
focuses on concept designs and advanced designs, while the Ann Arbor
office does designs for production vehicles. Toyota also received a leg
up in the U.S. auto market thanks to the oil crisis
of the mid 1970s, which left customers scrambling to find
fuel efficient vehicles. In 1975, the company gained the
top spot among import brands. In 1986, it was the first import brand
to sell one million vehicles in the U.S.. And since then, it has
remained among the top sellers. So how did it get there? Their cars did not have the flair
or pedigree of their American and European competitors. But Toyota and other Japanese
manufacturers offered something different quality and reliability
at low prices. I mean, they hit the market at the
perfect time because clearly we had the oil crisis at that time. The U.S. automakers weren't producing really
the small cars. And here comes the Japanese with
a high quality, reasonably priced product with excellent fuel economy. Crucial to achieving this was Toyota's
approach to manufacturing, which has become renowned throughout the automotive industry
and the larger world of manufacturing from the
very beginning. Toyota stressed the importance of
efficiency in its factories. Plants were set up to emit waste
and inconsistency as much as possible. One thing this does is reduce wasted
parts by only keeping a small number of parts on hand at any given
time and only making what is needed. The factory is liable to waste a lot
less time, energy and materials if it discovers a defect in something. Consistency and reliability became the keys
to Toyota's strength, and as the automaker's sales grew, the
Toyota production system became perhaps the most respected in the world. We never believe we're
the best at anything. You know, I appreciate our competitors
and others thinking that we're great. You know, it's nice to
be thought of as great. We constantly wake up in the
morning and think, you know, we're not that great, we
need to get better. Continuous improvement. So that's that's a factor. One factor, too, is
respect for people. And the reason why that plays into
the current production system is when you look at how we operated our
players, we actually empowered the team member on the wall to make critical
decisions about the quality of the products coming off that far. In fact, other automotive manufacturers
have tried to copy Toyota techniques to improve
their own vehicles. General Motors set up a joint
manufacturing venture with Toyota called New United Motor Manufacturing, or NUMMI. Even elite European carmakers have
wanted to learn from Toyota. Porsche brought retired Toyota executives
in to teach the company's manufacturing techniques. When Porsche was trying to make its
own lower cost Baxter car, however, Toyota's reputation for durability has
not always been flawless. Beginning in 2009, the company suffered
perhaps its worst recall scandal in its history. An off duty California highway patrolman was
driving on a highway with his family when the Lexus they were
in unexpectedly accelerated, crashed into another car, then tumbled off
the highway and caught fire. Everyone in the car was killed. That was the beginning of a long
drama that would result in the company recalling millions of vehicles and paying
out more than one billion dollars in a settlement with the U.S. government. Like many automakers, Toyota was also swept
up in the scandal over faulty airbags installed by the
Japanese supplier Takata. But if Toyota faces an enduring challenge
today, it is not a perception that its products are unsafe. It is a perception that its
products don't particularly excite people. At least in the U.S., auto sales have hovered near
record levels in recent years. But industry observers expect sales to
turn downward in the future. The other threat facing Toyota and
indeed all automakers is the excitement over self-driving cars and competition
from other forms of transportation. Cash rich tech companies have thrown their
weight behind a plethora of new transportation concepts, including ride hailing
and apps that allow customers to quickly rent
electric scooters and bicycles. Most of these concepts are still in
their infancy, but they are rapidly attracting investment. Legacy automakers do not want
to be left behind. To be fair to Toyota, it has
been responsible for more than a few innovations in its long history. In 1997, Toyota launched the hybrid car
market with the Prius, the first production hybrid vehicle. Toyota is also credited with creating one
of the earliest examples of what we now think of as a crossover. The Toyota Rav-4 for was one of the
first SUV like vehicles built with a unique body frame typically used
for cars, crossovers and SUV. Now make up 48 percent of the US
new car market and smaller crossovers such as the Rav-4 are some of the
best selling and fastest growing segments. But now, like its competitors, Toyota
is trying to transition from a traditional carmaker into a
diverse mobility business. The company invested six hundred
million dollars in D.D., a Chinese ride hailing apps similar to
Uber and Lyft in the United States in early 2019. About a year after making a
500 million dollar investment in Uber. The company also has a number
of organizations that are devoted to researching new technologies. Toyota Research Institute was
founded in 2015. It studies robotics and artificial
intelligence and is, among other things, trying to build a car
that is incapable of crashing. Toyota A.I. Ventures, the venture arm of the
institute, manages more than 200 million dollars and invests in an array of
mobility technologies in areas such as robotics, artificial intelligence
and aviation. In the meantime, Toyota is trying to
make old cars that are not just practical, safe and reliable. Current president Akio Toyoda is known to
be passionate about cars in a way that is distinct
from his predecessors. Akio is a driver and is fond
of racing cars under a pseudonym. Notably, he test drove
the super himself. The Supra is also the first car in
the United States to be released under Toyota's Garza racing sub brand. A new line of vehicles meant to help
fulfill Akio Toyoda is no more boring car's mandate. I think it all kind of starts with
the no more boring cars mantra, really. You know, it kind of
embodies that award for Toyota. And I think, you know, when you add
that to some of the other things that we're doing around adding some other models
to our to our car lineup, it really, really lifts up the Supra idea as
something for all of us to look at and say, wow, how can we how can
we inject some more light into some of our cars? And so. So I think overall what it does is
it brings emotion back to our brand. Apart from the Supra, Toyota is trying
to infuse excitement into much of its lineup, even in models typically
known as family haulers or ride hailing workhorses. Notably, the automaker is expanding its
Toyota racing development or TR D sub brand. Historically, Toyota has stuck the TRT badge
mostly on its pickups such as the Tacoma, the Tundra
and the Forerunner SUV. But in 2018, Toyota came out with
TRT versions of the Avalon and Camry sedans. The move shocked
the automotive press. For now, moves like this may help
keep drivers interested in owning a Toyota, despite fierce competition from fellow
automakers and a bevy of new transportation options further made itself
into one of the world's biggest and most
respected automakers. Using innovation and discipline to
leapfrog American and European rivals the next several decades might reveal
whether that will still matter.
