The Story of Sakichi Toyoda
Sakichi Toyoda, the founder of Toyota Industries Corporation, possessed a strong ambition to contribute to society from his days as a youth. He had devoted his 63-year-long life to invention.
Car Air-Conditioning Compressors
Toyota Industries’ car air-conditioning compressors are highly acclaimed in terms of their reliability at high operating speeds and quiet operation in addition to such excellent environmental performance features as compactness, weight reduction and fuel efficiency. The car air-conditioning compressor business captures the world-leading market share in unit sales. Toyota Industries' car air-conditioning compressors have been adopted by world-leading automakers, such as Toyota Motor Corporation, Daimler AG, Volkswagen AG, General Motors Company (GM), Ford Motor Company and Stellantis N.V.
In addition, our electric compressors for electric vehicles have been fitted in vehicles such as Toyota Motor Corporation, Ford Motor Company, Daimler AG and Honda Motor Co., Ltd., and we will accelerate our efforts to expand sales to automakers in the world.
Development Efforts Based on 3Es (Energy, Environmental Protection and Ecological Thinking)
More stringent fuel efficiency standards have been enforced in North America, Europe, Japan and China, requiring automobiles to provide extremely high fuel efficiency performance. Against this backdrop, in the field of car air-conditioning compressors to be fitted in internal-combustion vehicles, the need for fuel-efficient models is growing for both fixed- and variable-displacement type compressors. In North America, in particular, the shift from a fixed-displacement type to a variable-displacement type gained further momentum. In response, we are concentrating on development of a variable-displacement type compressor with considerably greater fuel efficiency while also focusing on an optimum balance between performance and prices of fixed displacement type products targeting emerging countries.
Creating Experimental Facilities In-House That Replicate More Realistic Vehicle Environment
In the conventional way of simply developing and evaluating car air-conditioning compressors alone, we can only capture certain properties and may not be able to meet customer needs sufficiently. To counter the situation, we started creating our own experimental facilities in-house that can replicate a more realistic vehicle environment. By doing so, we can respond to customer needs more precisely and quickly while clearly clarifying our outstanding product strengths through more accurate product evaluation. The creation of experimental facilities internally also enables us to place our original technologies in a “black box” and prevent external leaks of our know-how and expertise. To further increase our competitive edge, we will launch this initiative on a full scale at our bases in and outside Japan.
