On September 23 Toyota Motor Corp chairman Akio Toyoda was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in Detroit. Just two days prior, he had crashed a Toyota off-road vehicle during testing. “So, if I look a little banged up, it’s because I am! But don’t worry, the car is fine!” he said as he took the stage to receive the honor. With the induction, Akio Toyoda becomes the fourth member of the Toyoda family to be welcomed into the American auto industry’s most prestigious club.
Toyoda follows in the footsteps of his grandfather and company founder Kiichiro Toyoda, his first cousin twice removed and president from 1967-82 Eiji Toyoda, and his father and former president from 1982-92 Shoichiro Toyoda. All three are in the Japan Automotive Hall of Fame as well.
“Like my grandfather and father before me, I am deeply moved by this honor, and I humbly promise to continue to earn it every day in support of this industry and this automotive family that I am so grateful to be a part of,” Toyoda said.
He then proceeded to thank all of Toyota’s dealers, suppliers, and approximately 400,000 employees, saying the kudos actually belonged to them. Paying respect to his hosts in Detroit, he recalled the admiration his forebears had forr the United States. Toyoda himself also expressed his fondness for Amerrica, having studied at Babson College in Mssachusetts and served as vice president of NUMMI.
Toyoda also spoke about the support he felt when he took the role of president at Toyota. It was 2009, just after the global financial crisis, and within months the 2009 unintended acceleration case became a nationwide spectacle. Toyoda was forced to prostrate himself before Congress and take responsibility, even though he had just become president in June of that year. Toyoda thanked the dealers and and US employees that stuck by him in that difficult time.
“How many cars we sell has never been the most important thing to me. What matters most is what those cars mean to the people that buy them,” Toyoda said. “What we sell is happiness.” Credited for a tenure that transformed the Toyota brand from a maker of sensible transportation to one of the last bastions of fun cars, Toyoda voiced his love for the cars and how that has guided his career. “Who in the world has ever been unhappy when taking delivery of a car? Cars are exciting, joyful, extraordinary things.”
Despite his larger-than-life persona and immense influence in the industry, Akio Toyoda is not yet part of the Japan Automotive Hall of Fame. That’s because the JAHoF has a slightly different criteria. As Toyota chairman, Toyoda is still active in the industry and shaping its its future. The committee tends to prioritize figures who have retired or passed, and whose impact can be viewed entirely in retrospect. There’s little doubt that one day he’ll join his predecessors there as well.
Turning to the road ahead, Toyoda rallied the 700 automotive leaders gathered to push forward as friendly rivals in a time when cars are facing new challenges. “Together there is nothing we can’t imagine, nothing we can’t create, and nothing we can’t overcome,” he urged. “We get to be part of the single greatest, most exciting, most rewarding, and in my opinion, coolest industry, in the world!”
As car enthusiasts, we can’t imagine a leader of a car company that’s more deserving of these distinctions.
Images courtesy of Toyota.
Another well earned feather in the cap for Toyota Motor Corporation. The quailty and above all long term reliability of Toyota automobiles is best known to owners that keep their vehicles for a long time. As an owner and driver of many Toyotas over the last 50 years, I speak from experience. My all time favourite is my Corolla SR Coupe, 1973, which I still have and now only take on pleasure drives and car shows in Pakistan. Driven approximately 400,000 miles it has never broken or let me down, without warning and that too, seldom. Unlike many more upmarket and expensive cars, just one example of quality matetials is that in the extreme climate and temperatures in my country, I find that after 50+ years even the electrical wiring retains its flexibility, showing little change or deterioration. I compare this to expensive cars I have owned in which wiring and connectors become brittle and susceptible to deterioration. I can say the same for many parts and components that add up to the quality and reliable longevity of Toyota cars, SUVs and commericial vehicles
Mr. Toyoda, Congratulations to you and your team of 400,000 people !