Always Better Society - Toyota Toyota Europe

We help to create an Always Better Society with smart mobility solutions that improve people’s journeys and make daily life more enjoyable. We aim to connect people, vehicles and the city through affordable mobility solutions that help reduce congestion and pollution. We deliver green manufacturing and forge lasting partnerships with our communities. Our goal is an Always Better Society in which personal mobility is safe, enjoyable and in harmony with the environment.

Our vision

At Toyota, we do not just make cars – we help to enrich the lives of people in the communities where we operate. We believe that green technologies and affordable mobility should be accessible to everyone. For this reason we lead the way in alternative powertrain and aim to create a Smart Mobility Society. We deliver green manufacturing and forge lasting partnerships with our communities. We want to contribute to an Always Better Society in which people’s daily journeys are safe, enjoyable and in harmony with the surrounding environment.

The challenge

With urban populations growing fast, our cities are becoming more congested and polluted. At the same time, personal mobility remains important to individuals and families. Consequently, people expect governments and companies to work together to ensure better air quality and provide a framework that allows smooth and sustainable urban transportation. Furthermore, as people’s lives are increasingly enabled by technology, they expect cities to become safer and better connected. Companies will also be held more and more accountable for the impact of their operations. Expectations of greater contribution to the development of the communities where production takes place, through environmental protection, green manufacturing and educational opportunities, will shape how a company is perceived and will directly affect its performances.

Our approach

In the future, mobility will be shaped by the needs of customers. At Toyota, we believe that no single technology can meet such a diversity of requirements. For this reason, we aim to provide a range of mobility solutions that can respond to the different necessities that customers will have at different times. This is part of the mobility roadmap we have been developing for over a decade.

Electric vehicles will best serve the needs of last-mile mobility. We are currently trialling this in Grenoble, where we are proving innovative products like the i-ROAD and the COMS. For everyday use, hybrid – the technology we spearheaded in 1997 with the launch of Prius – and plug-in hybrids will remain the powertrain of choice for the majority of our customers. In the near future, fuel cell vehicles powered by hydrogen will cater for the remaining needs of long-distance mobility in a society ever more concerned about pollution.

A smart mobility society

We want to achieve a Smart Mobility Society, where safe, affordable low-carbon transportation is a reality. We believe that cars will continue to have a prominent role in this society. Our objective is to integrate them as much as possible with their surroundings so to reduce the impact of personal mobility on people and the environment.

The primary driver for this push is safety. Safety has always come first at Toyota and our ultimate goal is to achieve zero traffic fatalities and injuries. To achieve this, we are working closely with governments and partners to develop smarter, interconnected traffic ecosystems, in which cars, pedestrians and roads can communicate with each other. These systems support safe driving by alerting drivers of potential risks by using data from roadside sensors – data unobtainable from vehicle sensors alone.

Partnerships with stakeholders

While we have a vision for society, we recognise that society in turn has expectations of us. To be able to meet and exceed them, we listen and collaborate with all of our stakeholders to understand their needs.

We are engaged internationally in providing expert advice in the field of mobility, and we support and strengthen European targets on CO₂ and recycling by overachieving them. Our actions also have an impact at local level. For example, we uphold our commitment to developing talent through our partnerships with schools and universities. We are also committed to renewable energy production, as well as engaging in partnerships to maintain and promote biodiversity.

The Smart Mobility Society

Through our hybrid technology, intelligent transport systems and integrated transport partnerships, we are helping to connect people, vehicles and the city, in order to power a quality of life revolution.

Sustainability Achievements

invested in local projects, between 2005 and 2014

supported by our National Marketing and Sales companies and manufacturing companies, between 2015 and 2014

of used HV hybrid batteries recovered and recycled from retailers and repairers

urban electric vehicles participating in Citelib by Ha:Mo mobility project in Grenoble, started in 2014

Grenoble has become the latest city to test Toyota’s Ha:Mo concept: a system that makes urban transport more flexible, efficient and environmentally friendly by seamlessly integrating public transport with ultra-compact electric vehicles

The Grenoble project is the latest step in our journey towards a Smart Mobility Society. It was launched in 2014, in partnership with the City of Grenoble, the metropolitan area Grenoble-Alpes Metropole, EDF and its affiliate Sodetrel, and Cité lib.

The aim of the project is to provide Grenoble with electric mobility within a comprehensive multi-modal mobility plan. We will be providing 35 three-wheel Toyota i-ROAD and 35 four-wheel Toyota Auto Body COMS for three years, to be used for short city trips. Customers will be able to pickup and leave them in any of the 27 charging stations installed and operated by Sodetrel.

By offering a new type of mobility based on ultra-compact electric vehicles, the service aims to complement Grenoble’s public transport network with a solution for short-trips — including one-way trips — that can be planned as part of overall city journeys. Moreover, thanks to a direct connection to Grenoble’s transport network, users will be able to plan and book their entire journey in advance, through a single application.

Grenoble is the second city to test the Ha:Mo concept, following initial trials in Tokyo in 2012.

Toyota believes that electric vehicles are part of the overall solution for low-carbon transport and are especially suited to short-distance, urban journeys, while hybrids, plug-in hybrids and fuel cell vehicles will prove more practical for longer trips.

As Toyota Chairman Takeshi Uchiyamada commented, "For many years, Toyota has taken on the challenge of creating all-new types of mobility. There are risks involved, but we hope we can make something that, while extraordinary today, will be common in the future. We are no longer just an automaker; we are aiming to make the community and the society better and better.

Three Toyota manufacturing plants in Europe have been selected as beacons for environmental excellence, piloting cleaner processes and greener technologies.

At Toyota, we strive to extend our vision for sustainable development to all of our own manufacturing operations. We have created a roadmap to sustainable plant approach based on three pillars:
1) Leading environmental performance;
2) Increasing use of renewable energy and
3) Harmony with our natural surroundings.

In 2008, Toyota Motor Corporation selected six plants worldwide to serve as industry-leading prototypes for clean and green production: Tsutsumi in Japan, Ban Pho in Thailand, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Mississippi in the US, Toyota Motor Manufacturing France and the two plants of Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK, Burnaston and Deeside. The nomination of three plants out of six from Europe is a testament to our world-leading practices in green manufacturing and sustainable processes that cut pollution, reduce waste, make efficient use of natural resources and work in harmony with nature.

To learn more about our ongoing series of measures and activities that have helped us reduce our environmental impact, please check our environmental page.

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