Big changes for Camry

If – and right now it’s a huge if – Toyota Australia gets the green light to build the next generation Camry it will be a very different looking sedan to the one that rolls from the Altona assembly line today.

That’s the message from Alex Shen, the designer responsible for the radical Toyota FT-1 coupe concept that debuted at the Detroit auto show yesterday.

Shen is the studio design chief at Toyota’s CALTY California design studio where the FT-1 was developed with the explicit intention of taking Toyota’s long-standing ‘vibrant clarity’ design language in a new and far more emotional direction.

The move has the direct backing of Toyota global boss Akio Toyoda.

“You see the big sedan market ... it’s not your typical vanilla box anymore if you look at the market as a whole,” Shen told motoring.com.au when asked about the design opportunities offered for the next Camry.

“The bar is raised very high and its constantly being raised and we are going to meet that bar and hopefully exceed that bar.”

Making the styling connection between the FT-1, with its racing car nose, huge air intakes, massive wheels and retracting rear wing and one of the most orthodox, conservative and evolutionary styled fleet cars on the planet isn’t easy.

But Shen says the message to take out of FT-1 for a car like the Camry is more in the philosophy than the physical.

“In concept, in theory, in philosophy we are going to put way more emotion into our products,” Shen said. “Each segment of products we have will require different emotion.

“For a sports car of course you have to make it outrageous and sexy and beautiful,” he added. “So in each lineup, each type of product we are really going to look at what best enhances it in terms of emotional content.”

With the first production vehicles to feature Toyota’s new more emotional design language due in 2015, the next generation Camry, number 10, is sure to receive substantial attention as it should debut in 2016 or 2017.

One thing that will help designers achieve a significant change in look for Camry is the next car will have a new basis for them to work with, as it will transition to a version of the new architecture that debuted under the latest Lexus ES300 and was adapted for the US market Toyota Avalon.

Significantly, this set-up features a proper multi-link rear suspension design rather than the semi-trailling arm set-up that Camry currently makes do with.

Shen confirmed the next Camry design was “being worked on some place”. He said he had no involvement in the project directly.

It is a crucial project for Toyota as Camry is a huge seller in the USA and popular in numerous markets globally. In Australia, where future production is in serious doubt in the wake of Ford and Holden’s 2013 announcements that they will cease manufacturing later this decade, it dominates the medium passenger vehicle segment.

Asked if the next Camry would be a big design step-change, Shen said: “It’s possible. I think it is constantly our intention to make big leaps on every product, especially from this point forward.

“Akio [Toyoda] expects it and the customers expect it and we are a customer-first company so we try and make big laps to satisfy the customer.

“I think people are looking for more design and emotional content in everything they buy.”

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