Toyota FT-86 II Concept an IAA Frankfurt 2011

Shortly after landing at Frankfurt Airport, we headed directly to the exhibition hall, or Messe, to help with the final bits and pieces before the doors opened on Tuesday morning for the Press Days of the 2011 IAA Frankfurt Motor Show. It was an interesting experience for me to say the least. In Geneva, I arrived when everything was already sparkling under the spotlights. This time, I could really get a sense of how much work actually goes into putting up a display at motor shows.

The exhibition centre in Frankfurt is just immense. After the first few hours there, I quickly realised that my colleagues were not joking when they told me the Frankfurt Motor Show was quite a bit bigger than Geneva.

Toyota Motor Europe has teamed up with the folks over at Our Future Mobility Now * to help bring tomorrow’s drivers and leading European manufacturers together at a live, creative event this summer.

Our Future Mobility Now is a project that brings together the mobile generation of the future and Europe’s leading vehicle manufacturers. Involving Toyota and other European manufacturers, the project is looking to build a community that imagines how the vehicles and transport we use will evolve and influence 21st Century life. Europe’s brightest young talent are invited to get involved and have a say on the big issues facing the transport industry, such as:

Last month, I was proud to hear that Toyota Motor Europe (TME) was the joint winner of the 2010 Award for Best Belgian Sustainability Report. The other joint winner was the retail clothing store C&A.

A few days ago Toyota France participated in the opening ceremony of our first Sustainable Retailer in La Rochelle in the west of France.  This is the result of more than 5 years work between Toyota Motor Europe, Toyota France, Toyota Financial Services, the dealer group Toys Motors and his architectural team.

There are sometimes stories that we don’t write about, that are actually of great interest to many people. This seems to have been the case with the plants that have been bred by TMC’s Biotechnology & Afforestation Business Division in Japan, and are used, amongst other places at the Prius plant. I have to admit I missed the significance of this when I visited Tsutsumi last June, but there has been a great buzz around the blogs about this.