Yoshinori Futonagane

Taking on "the ace of aces" as a challenger

The RAV4 is Toyota's best-selling single model, "the ace of aces", and Futonagane, who was entrusted with its full redesign, says excitement outweighed the pressure and he always approached it as a challenger. The development team called the GA-K platform, carried over from the previous model, the "second round", and made major changes to how the space under the floor is used for electrification. They also worked on quietness, which had been an issue, and he says that being able to lower the bonnet compared with the previous model, thanks to a smaller, more efficient powertrain, was one of the things that gave the design more freedom.