At the end of my time with the convoy, I had the opportunity to sit down with Yoshikazu Sahara – the captain of this 5 Continent Drive project, and Hideyuki Tanaka who leads dynamic analysis in Toyota and was the vehicle leader of the 5C project.
I asked them about their expectations of this drive and how it has matched up so far. To which Mr. Sahara said, “The traffic jams are quite heavy in India and that is way heavier than I expected. That surprised me.” Mr. Tanaka added the following, “Those traffic jams were shocking. People ignoring traffic lights and rules… this kind of environment was quite surprising.”
It wasn’t just the traffic that caught them off-guard, their experience with the livestock roaming our streets also raised a few eyebrows, as Mr. Sahara elaborates, “I thought it is only vehicles on the road… but it has cows, dogs, goats… so many animals! That surprised me again. Mr. Tanaka had concerns regarding safety in this environment – “In that congested situation, I wonder how people do not suffer any accidents.”
The whole aim of this drive is learnings and insights, so I quizzed the duo on what the lessons they had taken from the drive so far. For Mr. Sahara, it was all about what the Indian people desire, he said, “I am spending my days during my drive thinking what are the needs of Indian people towards vehicles and I bear that in my mind as the most important learning point.” Mr. Tanaka had a more technical mindset, as he explains, “Since I am in charge of dynamic analysis, how to judge the vehicle is my most important job. Hence, to understand and judge which function supports the vehicle best and I am learning how to implement those understandings.”
Dealership visits were an interesting part of this drive, and I was curious to know what the duo thought of the experience. Mr. Sahara had a very interesting insight about the market at large, “Since it has been only one week in India, I am not too sure… but I barely see “luxury vehicles”. I assume if the infrastructure gets better, we could see more luxury vehicles.”
This was an eye-opening conversation with the two leading men on this journey. It is commendable that a manufacturer of this stature like Toyota is going through such great lengths to understand the mindset and needs of their customers. Both Mr. Sahara and Mr. Tanaka exude the passion, drive, and determination to be the best that Toyota is known for. Seeing how keen they are to delve deep into the Indian market, and how focused they were on the task at hand, is proof that Toyota are extremely dedicated to developing vehicles that will suit our very specific needs and delight the brand’s Indian customers.
