11|12|2009

Toyota chooses Bilbao for its "laboratory of ideas"

Car manufacturer Toyota has selected Bilbao for the location of one of its Laboratories of Ideas, in which it seeks out new trends and concepts for the future of vehicles.

The project was presented on Monday at the AIC (Automotive Intelligence Center) in Amorebieta (Bizkaia province), with the attendance of the Higher Representative of Bizkaia, José Luis Bilbao, and the Managing Director of the BR Corporate Value Creation Project, Tetsuya Kaida.

The multinational car manufacturer will work on this initiative in coordination with Bilbao Metropoli-30 and AIC-Automotive Intelligence Center.

The Director General of Bilbao Metropoli-30, Alfonso Martínez Cearra, explained that this pilot project would have a minimum duration of one year and would be undertaken from 2010 in Bilbao in the framework of the Toyota strategy of “seeking out the new values in the world that will determine the future of the industry ".

One person from Toyota has already been working for a month in Bilbao to set up this laboratory of ideas. The laboratory will join another opened one month ago in Chicago and another in Bangkok.

The objective of the initiative is to investigate ideas and values around the world that mark the changing trends in societal demand in the field of the automotive industry and which then have a practical application in the sector.

Tetsuya Kaida, the person behind the project, underlined the fact that Bilbao had been chosen because they were looking for a place that was not too big, and that had “history” and where “the passing of time can be felt”. “Bilbao also has a lot of character” he added.

During the presentation of this initiative, the Higher Representative of Bizkaia, José Luis Bilbao, emphasized the “exciting” nature of the initiative, since it represented the “devising” of the future of the automotive sector. Bilbao said the project could be included in the framework of Bizkaia’s commitment to innovation, which "is part of its genetic makeup".