Takuji Dai

The meeting went silent

After development of the fourth generation began, Dai raised the fuel economy target several times. Each time he announced a new target, the meeting went silent. Reconciling conflicting performance goals like strong driving and fuel economy can't be solved with a single trick. By piling up small improvements, which he called "yose-yose," they did everything they could think of, from tire rolling resistance to aerodynamics and weight reduction, and achieved fuel economy equal to front-wheel-drive cars in the same class despite being all-wheel drive.