Toyota's NBC platform keeps proliferating, with the WiLL Vi runabout targeted at the Japanese Net-gen, especially female buyers. The WiLL Vi has a simple instrument panel and steering wheel with large, padded hub. The other extreme of the NBC formula is the bB—named after "black Box" by the vehicle's young chief stylist. The bB's design is in marked contrast to the intentionally close-coupled WiLL Vi's; it seats five in comfort and can be converted into a queen-sized bed. bB body development used Toyota's latest CAE and "V-Comm" (virtual vehicle structure) technology.

The new members of the family, the WiLL Vi and bB, are significant in that their conception and development processes marked a departure from Toyota's modus operandi, itself long recognized as the model of efficiency and quality achievements.

The WiLL Vi was conceived away from home at No. 1 Toyota City in a "company-within-a-company" called VVC (Virtual Venture Company). It was established in the summer of 1997 by order of then-Toyota-President (now Chairman) Hiroshi Okuda, to reach out to the Net- or Y-generation. Toyota's forte has been in Japan's mature customer base (of over 50 year olds) that has helped the company's market share touch the magic 50%. On the other hand, its penetration in the youth segment had been declining in the '90s, and may now be short of 25%. Okuda was alarmed by Toyota's increasingly staid image, and decided that only an entrepreneurial entity freed from the giant manufacturer's superior yet conventional wisdom could conceive products attractive enough to entice the discriminating younger generation.

Junzo Shimizu, Toyota's marketing expert, was appointed President of VVC, attesting to the company's unique independent status. With a small group of young planners, Shimizu moved out of Toyota City and set up the main office in the bustling Sangenjaya district of Tokyo and an R&D unit in the town of Nissho-cho, which is near but still apart from the mighty Toyota R&D complex.

VVC's first assignment was not vehicular, but a giant showroom and theme park called Mega-Wave, built on reclaimed land in the Tokyo bay. The site is attracting large crowds of visitors, mostly of the younger generations including the Z-gen, accompanied by their car-owning and -buying parents. VVC is expanding the see-and-ride concept to smaller sites in other major Japanese cities.

VVC tried its hand at "specials" based on production Toyota models with unique trim and color schemes. However, it chose not to offer them as loaded bargains, so sales volumes were low. Obviously, it would take more than specials. So VVC entered a common-brand marketing agreement with several nonautomotive partners to offer various products—ranging from beverages to kitchen deodorant sprays to automobiles—under the name WiLL. VVC's automotive product bears the nameplate WiLL Vi.

The car was styled and packaged by VVC at its R&D unit, the body engineered by the Toyota affiliate and specialist Central Automobile, and the NBC platform adapted and developed by Toyota's Vehicle Center 2. Central Automobile produces the vehicle.

The WiLL Vi's targeted customer demography is female buyers in their 20s and early 30s. The four-door sedan shares its underpinnings with the Vitz/Yaris hatchback, including the 2370-mm (93-in) wheelbase and front 1450-mm (57-in) and rear 1430-mm (56-in) tracks. The car is 3760 mm (148 in) long, 1600 mm (63 in) wide, and 1675 mm (66 in) tall—150 mm (6 in) longer, 60 mm (2.5 in) narrower, and 75 mm (3 in) taller than the hatchback. Its tall, laid-back posture and corrugation-inspired stamped doors, hood, and trunk lid impart a unique—"curious" may be more appropriate—character. The rear doors are narrower than the fronts', allowing access to a shallow rear bench seat. Young people will put up with upright seating with minimum legroom for short trips, but would hate contortionist entry and exit through the front doors, according to the chief engineer. Honda learned a bitter lesson, failing to note this trait with the original two-door HR-V (a junior model to the CR-V). A four-door version has since been added to the HR-V range.

The WiLL Vi's mass is 940 kg (2070 lb), 120 kg (265 lb) heavier than a comparable five-door Vitz, so a more powerful engine is specified. The single powertrain choice is the 2NZ-FE inline four-cylinder 1.3-L engine with double overhead camshafts, 16 valves, and continuously variable valve-timing system, combined with an electronically controlled four-speed automatic transmission. The engine produces 68 kW (91 hp) at 6000 rpm and 123 N•m (91 lb•ft) at 4400 rpm using regular-grade unleaded gasoline. The WiLL Vi passes Japan's stringent J-TLEV exhaust-emissions standards.

The chassis is shared with the other NBC models, with front MacPherson strut and rear twist-beam/trailing-arm suspension incorporating toe-control capacity. The car's rack-and-pinion steering features engine-speed-sensing variable power assist, and the front disc and rear drum brake combination has ABS and electronically controlled brake assist. The vehicle meets Japan's frontal and side collision requirements at 50 km/h (31 mph), and Europe's 40% offset crash standard at 56 km/h (35 mph).

President Okuda's strategy of Toyota revitalization worked in two ways. Toyota's VVC was functioning satisfactorily, successfully designing and launching the Mega-Wave site and proceeding with the development of its first complete vehicle product, the WiLL Vi. The venture also stimulated Toyota's and its affiliated companies' R&D units.

One such group was a team headed by Chief Engineer Naoto Kitagawa of the Vehicle Center 2, which is responsible for most of the company's front-wheel-drive models (some exceptions being the Camry platform and its derivatives, including the Lexus RX300, which belong to the primarily rear-wheel-drive Vehicle Center 1). Kitagawa had been responsible for the development of the FunCargo/Verso mini MPV, another NBC derivative. His team responded to Okuda's challenge from within the main Toyota R&D sanctum. They were joined by designers and engineers from affiliate Toyota Automatic Loom Co., which was the very origin of Toyota, whose automotive division produced the earliest Toyota vehicles. The affiliate's manufacturing operations now produce more Toyota vehicles than automatic looms and it has its own R&D program, which is capable of styling, designing, and developing major automotive components including bodies and interiors.

An in-house project codenamed 325N and dubbed "black Box" within the styling team was a vehicle specifically and primarily aimed at young single male buyers in their 20s that accept surprises as daily occurrences. Anything less and they would pay scant attention. They want presence and substance in their possessions. Sporting gear like mountain bikes and snowboards are an essential part of their lifestyle. What better shape could satisfy these requirements than a Box? The unofficial name stuck, and at one time, the designers wanted to emulate the great Henry Ford I by offering it in any color as long as it was black. Commercial wisdom prevailed, and the name was shortened to "bB," again with small b and capital B conveying the original concept, but allowing color choices to be offered.

The controversial design met a fierce reaction from a Toyota engineering executive in its initial evaluation in full-size clay model form. The director went so far as to declare, "It could not be done, in mass or cost. It is more of a larger Corolla-based project than of the

NBC family. A chief engineer who pushes this sort of absurdity should be canned!" Undaunted, Kitagawa countered every point of the director's objection.

Project black Box's final test was a management review of the concept and design—a serious affair attended by an army of soberly dressed top executives. The design team, all wearing bright Hawaiian shirts, did not pull out life-size mockups this time, but instead showed a video of the "Box" in action, employing state-of-the-art computer graphics. No explanatory words were uttered, and the visual presentation was accompanied by some lively music pieces. After this unprecedented presentation, Okuda said, "It is not up to us on the board to evaluate and judge this vehicle, but to you young people to decide."

Vehicle design has made tremendous strides in recent time with the aid of computer analysis and simulation. Kitagawa said the new technology has all but eliminated the old trial-and-error approach. Nonetheless, he conceded, there remain some glitches in the established design and development flow that could slow progress. Numerous design changes may become necessary, when prototype vehicles built from the original design drawings are found awkward to assemble, performance and dynamics may fall short of the projection, and flaws in fit and finish may be found. Design changes are by far the most time- and manpower-consuming during the design and development phases of a new vehicle. The chief engineer would do his utmost to coordinate all activities among the participants in the project. However, they often may not be quite synchronized, leaving some problems to be resolved later, which necessitates further design changes.

Obviously, a more streamlined, coordinated, and efficient design and development process must be developed. Kitagawa found a large room within the Technical Center, bare of any partitions and cubicles, and gathered all members involved in the bB project: vehicle designers; development and test engineers; manufacturing experts from the Motomachi Plant, the home of Toyota's manufacturing engineering and production; and quality engineers from the Takaoka Plant where the bB would be produced, and suppliers' representatives. Virtual reality and simulation programs were fully utilized to ensure the design's manufactur-ability in the Takaoka Plant, not the newest of Toyota's plants, but certainly a model of its lean production.

The bB pit produced one set of engineering drawings, with no in-process and after-the-design changes whatsoever. Kitagawa is confident that the new process will serve as an important model that will add strength to Toyota's already formidable technology base.

The bB shares the longer 2500-mm (98-in) wheelbase with the FunCargo/Verso mini MPV. The five-door vehicle is 3825 mm (151 in) long, 1690 mm (67 in) wide, and 1640 mm (65 in) tall, which is 35 mm (1.5 in) shorter, 40 mm (1.6 in) lower, and 30 mm (1.2 in) wider than the MPV. It is offered in front- and all-wheel-drive specifications, with curb mass ranging between 1030 and 1100 kg (2270 and 2425 lb).

The 50-strong bB design and development team, including production engineering, worked in a single "Pit" versus a conventional flow-through individual-unit process. This new compact organization and methodology, which greatly speeds up the design/development process, may soon expand to other Toyota projects.

The box of a body has a long, flat, and large roof, which presented a tough challenge to the Vehicle Center 2's body designers and engineers. The shape could act as a resonance box at the slightest excitement from road vibrations. Left overnight, a large snowfall could dump as much as 200 kg (440 lb) on the roof. Extremely upright A-pillars would not contribute as much to the absorption and distribution of impact energy in a frontal crash as raked pillars. These were overcome with a unique body structure and strengthening, and the aid of Toyota's super-computer analysis.

Two four-cylinder engines are available: a 2NZ-FE 1.3-L unit rated at 65 kW (88 hp) at 6000 rpm and 123 N•m (91 lb•ft) at 4000 rpm, and a 1NZ-FE 1.5-L producing 81 kW (110 hp) at 6000 rpm and 143 N•m (106 lb•ft) at 4200 rpm. Either engine is mated to an electronically controlled four-speed automatic transmission. The 1.5-L AWD employs a rotary-blade, on-demand, torque-transfer coupling at the midpoint of the propeller shaft to the rear wheels. A five-link-supported live axle replaces the front-wheel-drive model's torsion-beam rear suspension. The bB is fitted with larger-than-normal 15-inch wheels shod with 185/65R15 tires.

The WiLL Vi and bB were enthusiastically received in the first month after their respective launches, the former by female buyers in the 20s and 30s, and the latter by largely male buyers, of whom 50% were under age 29 and 25% the 30s. They are forming long queues that may stretch as long as three months.

Jack Yamaguchi

AEI May 2000