Toyota’s brand value on the rise
The highlights of this year’s ranking include technology and automotive brands dominating the list, holding a combined 28 positions out of 100; as well as the recognition towards integrated solutions brands offer for individual needs of the customer.
“The Best Global Brands report examines what it takes for brands to succeed in today’s hyper-fragmented world. As people demand immediate, personalized and tailored experiences, business and brands need to move at the speed of life,” says Jez Frampton, Interbrand’s global chief executive officer.
“Many of the brands in this year’s Top 100 are so intuitively aligned with people’s priorities, that they are able to seamlessly integrate into their everyday lives.”
According to Toyota, ‘moving at the speed of life’ is a native philosophy for a company which is committed to the creation of ever better mobility solutions. This is an outward, consumer-centred approach to transportation, shaped by the needs of customers.
Toyota says it believes that no single technology can meet such a diversity of requirements. For this reason, it aims to provide a range of mobility solutions that can respond to the different necessities that customers will have at different times. This is part of the mobility roadmap we have been developing for over a decade.
It maintains electric vehicles will best serve the needs urban mobility and says it is currently trialling this in Grenoble, where it is are proving innovative products like the i-ROAD and the COMS in a car sharing experiment.
For everyday use, hybrid — the technology Toyota spearheaded in 1997 with the launch of Prius — and plug-in hybrids will remain the powertrain of choice for most customers.
Fuel cell vehicles powered by hydrogen will cater for the remaining needs of long-distance mobility in a society ever more concerned about pollution. To make this happen, Toyota has opened over 5,680 fuel cell patents for the royalty-free use this year, including those used for Toyota Mirai, world’s first mass produced fuel cell sedan which is entering sales in Europe this month.
