Cutting-edge Technology: Toyota simply did not stop to the concept of ‘popular economy
car’. This concept could have easily turned into product maturity and decline. But Toyota
continuously engaged in improving technology – design, looks, comfort, fuel efficiency,
environmental friendliness, and other technical improvements. For example, Toyota
Corolla was first introduced in Japan in 1966 and in the US in 1968 as a first generation
Toyota Corolla. Since then roughly in every three years it is being developed and
marketed in a new model. By 2006, tenth generation of Toyota Corolla was already
launched with significant technological improvements. Toyota’s hybrid cars can be taken
as another example. It started producing hybrid cars in 1995 however till 1999 Japan was
the only market for its hybrid cars. Coming to 2005, it became successful to capture a
large chunk of US market. Today, it is selling almost seventy five percent of its hybrid cars
alone in the US market.