Toyota launches Kinto, the on-demand subscription car service

In this digital age, we have become accustomed to the on-demand subscription service lifestyle whether that be for music, favourite TV shows and films, boxes of fruit and iPhones.

Toyota Japan is dipping its toe into the subscription service pool following the lead of other brands such as BMW, Audi and Volvo. The subscription share car model is different from traditional car ownership in the sense that instead of owning your vehicle outright (or taking out a car loan), for a monthly fee you will be able to select a car of your choice and enjoy it as you like for a fixed period of time.

The Toyota Kinto program has two options for subscribers to choose from, or as they put it “to enjoy their relationship with the car of their choice in a fun and easy manner”. The word Kinto is derived from the Japanese word kintoun which means flying nimbus, Dragon Ball Z fans will be familiar with this concept of a mobility cloud.

Kinto One (Think Netflix base 1 screen option) allows customers to drive one Toyota-brand vehicle over a three-year period, while the Kinto Select (Netflix top-tier multi-screen option) gives subscribers up to six models of Lexus-brand vehicles over a three-year period to drive. The Kinto subscription service, just like Netflix has a monthly fixed-sum fee that includes insurance, vehicle tax, registration fees, and regularly scheduled servicing of the vehicle. Kinto One users opting for a Corolla Sport for their contract period will pay around ¥49,500 ($635 AUD) a month while Kinto Select subscribers will pay ¥180,000 ($2,307 AUD) per month for their rotation of Lexus models.

A Flybuys points style reward system is set to accompany the subscription service which would reward users for good driving and ownership behaviour. This could cover things such as how safely users are at navigating the streets to how eco-friendly their driving style is, with those accumulated points used to subsidise monthly payments. We imagine this is a good way to curb reckless driving and treatment of the vehicles.

Before you get too excited about that constantly updated new car feeling, the Toyota subscription service is currently only being trialled in Tokyo before being rolled out across the rest of Japan later this year. If all goes well, there is potential to see this service come to Australia.

Related: Car subscription explained

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