Toyota/Lexus Experience Day 1

Written by Rano Iskandar on October 31, 2019. Posted in automative, Social News

With Faza Suraj, a representative from The Bruneian. Thank you, NBT (Brunei) Sdn Bhd for this opportunity

With the bell ladies from Keio Plaza Hotel

It was definitely a great experience being invited by NBT (Brunei) Sdn Bhd to the Tokyo, Japan, for the recent Tokyo Motor Show. I could resonate to a classic movie, “Lost in Translation” because I could get truly lost whenever I was confused on which train line to catch for next destination. On a brighter note, the ground handlers from Toyota (Japan) and the logistics team were pretty awesome as they really took care of us from Day 1.

Faza Suraj from The Bruneian and I were privileged to attend the 3 day line up hosted by Toyota and Lexus (Japan). The first day was mostly a welcoming session for all the media delegates from Asia Pacific and the event took place at Hilton Tokyo Odaiba, Japan.

There was a presentation on Toyota’s stance as mobility company and electrification strategy. It was followed up by a ride experience and exhibition tour to deepen the understanding of Toyota’s electrification. Finally, a car show presentation where we got a sneak preview of Toyota’s LQ and Toyota Mirai. The day concluded with a welcome party themed, “Start Your Impossible”.

The media were also privileged to meet the Toyota ambassadors who will represent their respective countries in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics 2020. I sat next to Singapore Paralympic swimmer, Toh Wei Soong who is only 21 years old and he’s a two time gold medalist at the 2018 Asian Para Games.

Some of the Toyota Ambassadors for the Olympic and Paralympic Games

With Paralympic swimmer from Singapore, Toh Wei Soong

The latest concept car from Toyota – LQ

The interesting i-Road from Toyota

The fuel celled powered Toyota bus – Sora

I was quite intrigued with Toyota’s vision and plan for the future. Toyota always have something exciting up their sleeves and this year, it’s no different. Toyota has been very active in producing Electric Vehicle and concept cars year in, year out and the trend may not be exploding but it’s slowly catching on. Toyota has identified that there is always a gap from advanced development and production vehicle development. The gap itself can be reduced with introducing concept cars. The way of the future will also be incorporating Artificial Intelligence Agent to humanize the car so the driver and passenger can feel more connected to a vehicle than ever before.

It’s no surprise that the President of Toyota, Akio Toyoda, believes that the people are the important subject matter even with the rise of technology. Technology is just to enhance the human experience.

Toyota is also one of the official partners for Tokyo 2020 (Olympics and Paralympics) and they have an impressive line-up for next year’s prestigious event.

The e-Pallete is one of them and it’s shaped like a self-driving modular store on wheels and it’s electric powered. The e-Pallete will be used during the Games 2020 and the public and athletes can enjoy the transport offered by Toyota. The e-Palette is in line with Toyota’s vision of “Mobility for All” and this modular is fully automated meaning autonomous driving. Now, it will be exciting to see how this plans out once the Games kick in next year.

Lexus also have a presentation on their concept car and it was the first ever electric car. It is called the Lexus LF-30 Electrified. Many have been asking for years on when Lexus will have their first electric car and here we are. The Lexus LF-30 is more than just a concept vehicle. It’s a bold new vision of vehicle electrification which I will share in my future post.

In the afternoon, we had the privilege to see up close on some of the electric vehicles of Toyota and also experience some drifting on the Toyota 86 and the Toyota Supra GR. For me, I was more excited on the drifting experience in the Supra GR. Though it was short, it was still a fun, adrenalin experience. Sadly, it won’t be out in Brunei but a few have been asking me on social media if this would be brought to our market. Who knows one day it will see it happen.

The day capped off with a welcoming party themed “Start Your Impossible” and we were treated to a very fine Japanese cuisine sponsored by Toyota at the Hilton Tokyo Odaiba. The audience were also being inspired by the two Toyota Ambassadors from the Paralympics who shared their inspiring journey as an individual and as an athlete and appreciating Toyota in making their impossible possible. I hope to see both of them competing in the Paralympics 2020.

Thank you so much to Toyota and Lexus team for organizing such an event for the media. They were very punctual and organized with their agenda and make sure all the media representatives were well fed.