Toyota has long been criticized for its overly conservative designs, but that is about to change according to Toyota’s new global styling chief, Dezi Nagaya.
“Toyota has been criticized for being quiet and nonoffensive, of having too friendly an image while lacking emotion,” Nagaya recently stated in an interview.
“We are going to be more dynamic, more masculine, sportier, with a more obvious design theme and a face to represent the company and the brand. We have eliminated emotion. We need to pump that up.”
Future Toyotas will try to move away from the traditional conservative Toyota designs, but it isn’t going to be easy for Nagaya who was also one of the creators of the Lexus “L-Finesse” design language. Conservative designs have been part of Toyota’s culture for generations so it is going not going to be easy to add passion and emotion into Toyota’s future vehicles.
The Toyota FT-86 concept is a preview of more emotional Toyota models. The FT-86 concept will arrive next year as the Scion FR-S. Creating new sporty models like the Scion FR-S will definitely be easier than trying to create a more emotional Camry.
“The Camry has a wide selection range with customers who don’t want something too aggressive,” Nagaya said. “But it has the responsibility of being the highlight of the lineup.”