The move is similar to what multiple automakers are striving for in developing less platforms but more models. Volkswagen, for example, unveiled earlier this year its MQB architecture which will be adapted for a huge range of different vehicles. Toyota hopes that the new framework will reduce costs by at least 30 percent by using more shared parts.
Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda spoke to reporters at the automaker’s headquarters in central Japan about the new architecture, expressing that Toyota is focusing back on making better products and ideally more exciting cars. They’re definitely on the right path with the upcoming Scion FR-S release.
The new architecture will also give chief engineers more control in the design review process, rather than executives in order to help eliminate layers of decision making.
“Toyota’s problem was that it had too many filters,” said Tokuo Fukuichi, who took the chief designer post last year. “When you have that many people weighing in, you end up developing cars by eliminating the negatives, not by creating something positive, by taking risks.”
Toyota will launch TNGA with three front-wheel drive vehicle platforms, covering about half of its models. Toyota elaborated that greater cooperation between the planning and design divisions will allow not only more design freedom, but the new platforms will benefit from a lower center of gravity helping improve styling and vehicle handling.
The NS4 plug-in hybrid (pictured above) is the first hint of the Japanese automaker’s hopes on a new design.