Hiroki Nakajima

Toyota Motor Corporation

Toyota Motor Corporation Passenger Car Center 2Chief Engineer

Toyota Motor Corporation Product Planning Division

Executive Chief Engineer

Managing Officer

Hilux 8th generation

2017–2024Development leaduntil 2016

Worked with

• Masahiko MaedaDevelopment lead from 2016 until 2017

Switching from an LS at the farm gate

Nakajima, who had developed only passenger cars, decided to make everything new for the eighth generation, from the platform to the engine and transmission. A farm owner he met in South America drove his Lexus LS to the farm gate, switched to his Hilux, and said it was a good car with little noise and vibration. Realizing that owners were adjusting their expectations because it was for unpaved roads, Nakajima chose to bring the ride comfort and quietness of a luxury car into the eighth generation.

Wheel arches that dented more easily

On an inspection trip early in the eighth generation's development, an owner told him the seventh generation was less tough than the old Hilux. When cargo was tossed in, the wheel arches, which had been hard to dent on the sixth generation, dented easily. By the numbers the seventh generation was sturdier, but that area was not among the points evaluated in strength testing. Nakajima changed the evaluation criteria and added more points to strength testing.

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Executive Officer

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