Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) will start to deploy a new beloved car subscription service1 called KINTO2, which proposes a new user-car relationship, from around the beginning of 2019.
The automobile industry is facing a once-in-a-century transformational period of sweeping changes. Technological innovation in the new fields of connectivity, automation, sharing, and electrification has greatly altered the concept of a car. New competition is emerging and competition rules are also undergoing great change.
Amid these changes, Toyota strives to change from an automobile manufacturing company into a mobility company that offers a range of services related to mobility in light of the mobility society of the future. Up until this point, Toyota has strengthened alliances between Toyota Group companies and other automobile manufacturers and new companies offering mobility services in order to create partnerships.
As cars shift from ownership to use, new types of ownership and options for driving such as sharing, car leases, and rent-a-car services are increasingly appearing. This is anticipated to make cars into an even more convenient and comfortable mobility option.
Toyota will deploy KINTO, the new beloved car subscription service for individuals, based on the idea that cars are manufactured goods that can be preceded by the word “beloved.” Toyota hopes that cars will always be the “beloved cars” of its customers, regardless of changes in the times.
Recently, as customer lifestyles and consumption styles have changed, customer needs are diversifying in addition to the need to own one car for a long period of time. These include customer needs to freely choose the type of car that they like and want to drive, and to freely enjoy such a car. With KINTO, customers can freely apply for a monthly fixed-sum service that has packaged procedures such as tax and insurance payments as well as vehicle maintenance. Therefore, they can freely select the car that they like or want to drive and enjoy it as they like. In addition, a program to reward customers who carefully use the car as if it were their own beloved vehicle is being planned. Under this program, points will be awarded for safe or ecological driving utilizing connected technology and regular visits to dealers. We are currently considering details such as operation methods and forms for the new service, and it is planned that such a program will initially be run on a trial basis in the Tokyo area.
Toyota will continue to engage in initiatives to ensure that cars can continue to be the “beloved cars” of customers and allow customers to enjoy a prosperous life with their car.
President Akio Toyoda has described the start of the new service as follows:
“Cars have been loved by people for over 100 years since they were first developed for many reasons in addition to their convenience. Indeed, I believe that it is because they offer many joys to people, including the joy of ownership, the joy of driving, and the joy of mobility. As society shifts from owning cars to using cars, the KINTO beloved car subscription service is a new proposal to enable customers to more freely enjoy cars. The service makes it easy to start life with a car as soon as the customer feels that they want one. Moreover, if the customer wants to try another car, they can change cars, and if they no longer need the car, they can return it. We named the service KINTO to represent our vision of a flying nimbus (kintoun in Japanese), insofar as it quickly appears when necessary and enables mobility as per the user’s wishes. Going forward, we will not only convey the appeal of cars, but also engage in initiatives to enable customers to find more enjoyment in the future mobility society based on the idea of “continuing to offer mobility that is beloved.”
*1Monthly fixed-sum service
*2Name signifying a service that quickly appears when necessary, enables mobility as per the user’s wishes, and is kind to the environment, like a kintoun (Japanese for “flying nimbus”)
SOURCE: Toyota
