Toyota Motor Corp's Managing Officer Tokuo Fukuichi speaks in front of a clay model of concept vehicle NS4 during an interview with Reuters at the company's design center building in Toyota, central Japan Nov. 28, 2012.YURIKO NAKAO/Reuters
When Tokuo Fukuichi was brought back to Toyota Motor Corp. to become head of design, he was given a simple directive from President Akio Toyoda: make Toyota cars simple and cool. He took a risk and objected.
"I said, look, Mr. President, just cool is not good enough," Mr. Fukuichi told Reuters. "Toyota had already tried hard to fix ugly parts and make them look better. What Toyota lacks the most is character."
Mr. Fukuichi, 61, knows something about character. In the late 1980s, he designed the first generation Previa, also known as the "egg van" – one of the most love-it-or-hate-it Toyota vehicles ever.
For Mr. Toyoda, who has criticised his company for losing sight of the fun and excitement of the automobile and has tried to shake up its stodgy and engineer-dominated design process, Mr. Fukuichi brought the right kind of edginess to the job.
In a rare move, Mr. Toyoda asked Mr. Fukuichi to rejoin Toyota in 2011 after he had left for group company Kanto Auto Works.
Two years on, Toyota's designs are starting to show signs of change.
From luxury brand Lexus's pinched-in-the-middle "spindle" grille to the Auris hatchback's sharply angled headlights, Toyota is taking steps to distance itself from a legacy of "plain vanilla" styling.
Not everyone is happy. At a shareholders' meeting in June, the very first issue raised from the floor was a complaint about the new "face" of Lexus models. But Mr. Fukuichi is unfazed.
"If we don't take risks now, there will be no future for us," he said.
The latest evidence of Toyota's newfound willingness to take risks with the look of its cars will be on show at Monday's Detroit auto show when Toyota reveals the Furia concept sedan, expected to give consumers a sense of what is coming when it launches the next version of its top-selling Corolla sedan.
Analysts say Toyota, the world's largest car maker by sales volume, has been driven to change. Toyota is being is squeezed between brands such as BMW and Volkswagen's Audi, which are seen as leaders in design, and a fast-rising rival in Hyundai that has won praise for the way it has managed to make its mass-market sedans look far more expensive than their sticker prices.
"Competitors are on the rise, and they are generally improving in areas such as safety technology and fuel efficiency," said Kunihiro Matsumoto, an autos analyst at UBS Securities in Japan.
"So Toyota needs to distinguish itself in other ways. There is still room for Toyota to improve its products through design."
Toyota executives know that their cars have traditionally sold on quality rather than looks.
"Before, our craftsmanship was focused on cutting out flaws. That led to cars that were not hated by anyone, but also not enthusiastically sought after by anyone," said Mr. Fukuichi.
About 100 panel members used to give scores to designs, which would then be tweaked to reflect their varying opinions and become less edgy.
Some 30 executives were involved in making the final decision at the Toyota headquarters, near Nagoya.
Now, designers recommend the model they back most strongly. Comments from panel members are taken into consideration but do not necessarily determine the design, and the number executives with a say has been cut to a third of what it was.
"It's no longer a democratic decision," Mr. Fukuichi said.
In recent years, Toyota's South Korean rivals Hyundai and its affiliate Kia have won kudos for styling, helping to transform the consumer image of those brands.
Hyundai last year hired former BMW designer Christopher Chapman as chief designer at its U.S. design centre, while Kia promoted Peter Schreyer, a former Volkswagen designer, as its chief design officer.
In an effort to catch up, Toyota has paired more aggressive designs with edgy marketing, eyeing younger buyers.
Promotional images for the Crown luxury sedan that most buyers will seek in black or white have used a flamingo-pink version of the car, which features a big, lightning bolt-shaped grille, with the tagline "Reborn".
And one Japanese newspaper ad has popular comedian and film director Takeshi Kitano staring at the new Crown as if he's not sure what to make of it.