The carmaker has handed over three vehicles to the Italian Paralympic Committee to guarantee transport for people with reduced mobility. The mobility brand's commitment ahead of Tokyo 2020 continues.
Promoting through the values of sport a society free from discrimination in which everyone can face their own challenges by overcoming their own limits, especially those related to movement. This is the objective of the partnership, established in March 2015, between the International Olympic Committee and Toyota Motor Corporation, which was followed by a collaboration, running from 2017 until 2024, between the Comitato Olimpico Nazionale Italiano (Coni) and the Comitato Italiano Paralimpico (Cip) and Toyota Motor Italia. It is precisely by virtue of this latter agreement that last July three Toyota Proace Verso vehicles with a specific configuration to ensure transport for people with reduced mobility were handed over to the Cip.
From sport to the home: Toyota's aim is to offer next-generation mobility services, transport solutions and advanced technologies for athletes, but also for people everywhere. Indeed, the partnership with the Olympic and Paralympic committees inspires Toyota's global campaign "Start your impossible", which in December 2017 marked the carmaker's transition from an "automotive" to a "mobility" brand, with a commitment to mobility across 360 degrees. "Just like Paralympic athletes who every day face their own Start your impossible – said Mauro Caruccio, Chief Executive Officer of Toyota Motor Italia – we too continue to work to guarantee the best possible mobility for everyone, improving existing technological solutions or introducing new ones, to enable everyone to move freely without any kind of obstacle." The handover of the Proace Verso vehicles took place in the presence of Cip President Luca Pancalli. "Being able to use these vehicles, fitted out to accommodate wheelchair-using athletes, will allow us to offer disabled girls and boys the essential mobility that so often gets in the way of reaching the places where sport is practised."
Just in recent days, Toyota has defined the pillars that will characterise its activities during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. With the concept of "Mobility for all", Toyota wants to provide the freedom to move to everyone, including people with disabilities, and to do so it will showcase the future of automated driving starting from the Toyota Concept-i. The second pillar is sustainability: the carmaker aims to provide a fleet of over 3,000 vehicles for official and other uses, equipped with the latest environmental and safety technologies to minimise environmental impact and road accidents, from the Mirai saloon to the Sora buses, both hydrogen-powered, through to the latest Full Hybrid Electric and Plug-in Hybrid models. The third pillar will be transport support for the safe and regular movement of people and goods to and from games events through the Toyota Production System (TPS), a system of connected information and technologies that aims to maximise efficiency while minimising waste.
