Unveiled: Toyota's TNGA Global Arhitecture; Aims to Make Production More Efficient

Toyota has unveiled the new TNGA global vehicle platform - the company's attempt at an integrated approach to developing powertrain components and vehicle platforms. This is will see Toyota group vehicle development with sharing of parts and powertrain elements to reduce the call on its resources by 20 per cent or more.

The company intends to work closely with suppliers, thus bringing costs further down, and making it possible to reinvest in developing advanced technologies and making its products even more attractive. The new architecture will also see the Japanese car manufacturer introduce a range of new engines. According to Toyota, these engines will see an improvement in fuel efficiency by approximately 25 per cent and an increase in power by more than 15 per cent.

The Japanese company also expects to improve the overall fuel efficiency of its hybrid vehicle systems by more than 15 per cent. With this new architecture, Toyota will be able to save more than 15% of costs on new products.

However, Toyota is not the first company to go that way. Volkswagen's MQB, Audi's MLB, Renault's CMFA, Volvo's SPA, and Mercedes' MFA and MRA platforms are all about reducing the number of cars that companies have to engineer from scratch. Toyota, on the other hand, currently has about 100 platforms and sub-platforms. Hence, catering to the global audience via the TNGA will amount to a significant amount of savings.

Fruthermore, the new family of engines too will bring in a sense of balance to the otherwise family of 800-odd engines currently used worldwide. Toyota will begin using its new platform with the launch of a midsize front-wheel-drive vehicle later this year. We could also see Mitsubishi, Subaru, and Mazda taking advantage of this platform, but that hasn't yet been confirmed by the company.