Toyota Team Members Tackle the Terrain of North America

• Toyota team members to embark on a 26,000 km, six month driving project in North America
• A wide variety of driving conditions will be chosen to represent actual customer experiences
• Part of the Five Continents Driving Project for training and honing abilities to create better cars

Plano, Texas, June 24, 2015―For some, driving in the wilderness is an everyday necessity. Others routinely face snow, ice, or flooding. At Toyota, we know that the only way to make better cars is to truly understand the conditions our customers face every day. This realization has inspired us to spend more time behind the wheel before we go back to our desks. It's motivated us to launch a new project which will see Toyota team members put themselves and their vehicles to the test over vast distances in North America.

Over the next six months, around 140 Toyota employees―including some from our North American operations―will take everything the giant, varied continent can throw at them over an epic 26,000 kilometer trek. They will seek out extreme conditions, ranging from the relentless heat of Death Valley to the unforgiving arctic climes of Alaska and Canada. Doubtless, they will return more in tune with Toyota's cars and customers, ready to use their experiences in the making of better cars.

Last year, the first leg of this project tackled the diverse and often inhospitable roads of Australia. Forty-one team members took part, pushing their vehicles to the limit over approximately 20,000 kilometers of desert tracks and other tough terrain. They encountered conditions that couldn't possibly be recreated on any test course, gaining experience that is already leading to the creation of better cars. In relating his thoughts on the future of development, one team leader, Seigo Matsubara, describes a sense of "violent, wave-like vibrations that continue for hundreds of kilometers." The lesson he learned: "If you run into trouble out where there is nothing for miles around, the problems you can face are potentially life-threatening. We can't betray the people who depend on our cars as lifelines." Now, the dips and climbs of North America will compound on the knowledge already gained.

Toyota GAZOO Racing, which focuses on global motorsports activities, is endorsing the upcoming drive across North America as well as related future projects elsewhere in the world. To emphasize its global nature, this series of employee driving projects has this year been named the Five Continents Driving Project. The aim is to bring the project to completion in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

For most of our history, we have pushed our cars to their limits in order to improve our products and develop our people. One example is motorsports, which our founder, Kiichiro Toyoda, described as vital to the evolution of car making and to the entire auto industry. That's why we have sent technical teams consisting solely of Toyota employees to compete in the 24 Hours of Nürburgring―an endurance race held in Germany―since 2007. Under conditions in which time, personnel, and equipment are all in short supply, we have developed the understanding of our people and learned a lot about our cars. To highlight the importance and value of these activities, we established a new Motor Sports Group this April, in addition to bringing many of our existing motorsports activities under the unified umbrella of Toyota GAZOO Racing.

Linking the Five Continents Driving Project to our ongoing quest to make better cars, Toyota President Akio Toyoda commented: "To grow sustainably, we must become more competitive. True competitiveness isn't about profits or sales figures. It's hard to measure; it resides in our ability to develop new and better cars, to strengthen our team, and to ensure product quality. Motorsports activities are a central pillar for creating ever-better cars, and the Five Continents Driving Project is an exciting way to boost our true competitiveness."

Toyota Motor North America has issued a local press release announcing the start of the driving project and unveiling architectural renderings of its future headquarters in Plano, Texas. To find out more, visit http://toyota.us/1Iaeg0q.