Toyota Decides Not To Change Car Design Often, Focus On Software Update

R&D Toyota team. (Photo: Toyota Global)

JAKARTA Toyota decided to extend the cycle of major updates to its models to about nine years. This new policy makes Toyota's car design life much longer.

This is different when compared to the previous pattern which ranged from four to five years, then increased to about seven years in the 2000s era. This step was taken because Toyota wanted to optimize software or software updates more.

This Japanese manufacturer is reluctant to make major changes to the exterior design or vehicle structure. The company assesses that regular software updates can provide increased performance, driving assistance features, to other additional functions that can be activated through subscription systems.

Reporting from Carscoops, Wednesday, November 19, the decision to extend the product cycle is considered to bring a number of advantages. Supply stability can increase, while consumers have longer time to get certain variants they are targeting.

In addition, a longer cycle allows the value of resales of vehicles to remain more stable thanks to depreciation that tends to slow down. However, this plan is not fully accepted without a note.

Some of Toyota's hundreds of independent dealers in Japan expressed concerns about plans to change the wholesale price scheme more flexibly. They assessed that the sales margin could be depressed if price adjustments did not follow the time pattern as before.

Toyota insists that the average wholesale price will remain stable throughout the nine-year period. With the portion of innovation shifting to software updates, Toyota is following the new direction of the automotive industry.