Toyota Motor Corporation Japan and Toyota Gazoo Racing in co-operation with Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt Ltd have inaugurated the Indian leg of its 5 Continents Drive. A team of Toyota employees from Japan as well as their Indian counterparts are driving from Bengaluru to New Delhi, over a course of 12 days covering a distance of 2889km.
In this project, Toyota employees travel the world, through diverse roads, environments and cultures trying to answer the question, ‘what makes a car better?’ The drive aims to provide real life exposure to Toyota engineers and also to train them to tackle tricky situations with limited resources at hand. Another important objective of this drive is to explore potential product improvements with the help of the personally involved Toyota and Gazoo Racing team members.
Like scenic locations and powerful cars? Follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter
The very first 5 Continents Drive took place in Australia in 2014 where around 80 team members drove 13 cars throughout Australia, which is said to boast 80 per cent of the world’s most demanding roads. In the following years, the drive took place in North America (2015), Latin America (2016), Europe (2017) and Africa (2018). The Asia leg is the last leg of this drive and it aims to end in time before the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic games. Starting from the Toyota Kirloskar Motor manufacturing facility in Bidadi, just outside Bengaluru the crew will cover about 8500km across eight countries in 60 days.
The Indian convoy includes nine cars lead by a Toyota Land Cruiser 200 imported from Australia especially for the drive. The LC 200 SUV is the symbolic vehicle of this drive and it is followed by the Fortuner, Camry Hybrid, two Innova Crystas, Corolla Altis, Yaris, Glanza and a Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza. After the Glanza, Toyota’s iteration of the Brezza will be the second model to come out of the Toyota-Suzuki alliance, and that’s one of the primary reasons for including it in the drive. In each country, local models from Toyota’s current production range will be driven.
The drive was inaugurated by Yoichi Minamiyama, GM, Resources and Brand Management, GAZOO Racing Company along with Masakazu Yoshimura, MD, Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd. Team evo India too will be a part of this drive next week. Stay tuned for fresh updates.