Southbound, the All-New 2018 Toyota Camry and First-Ever 2018 Toyota C-HR


Digital influencers gathered at Southbound in Chamblee, Ga.
to experience the newly released 2018 Toyotas.


Last week,  the all-new 2018 Toyota Camry was revealed.  On Friday, June 23, I was among the first on the East Coast to see this beauty during a special event at Southbound in Chamblee, GA. 
  
Corey Proffitt, East Coast Communications Manager, Toyota North America, along with Mike Esposito and Matt Michals, District Training Managers, Southeast Toyota Distributors, presented the all-new 2018 Toyota Camry and the first-ever 2018 Toyota C-HR to a select group of Atlanta's digital influencers.

The new Camry utilizes TNGA (Toyota New Global Architecture), which represents a completely new strategy to the way the company designs, engineers, and packages its vehicles. TNGA retains all of Toyota’s traditional values of superlative build quality and safety while injecting a fun driving experience that plays on all the senses. The physical manifestation is the usage of a new engine, transmission and GA-K platform.
 
 
The Camry development team aimed for a styling design concept that achieves strong harmony between refinement and a sensual athletic image, creating a new approach to the market. The result is a new signature design language that takes the car into a beautiful and futuristic new direction. 

There were three primary design goals when penning the all-new Camry: a distinctive, low center of gravity that results in a firm wide stance; a practical-yet-emotionally styled cabin profile, and a sporty and upscale image both inside and out. These design goals have resulted in a new type of sedan that’s both exciting to look at and, more importantly drive, reestablishing itself as the new standard in the mid-size sedan category.
 
 
Camry will be available in five grades: L, LE, XLE, SE and XSE.  The sportier SE and XSE grades wear a noticeably different body style than the entry level L and LE, and premium XLE grades, highlighted by a sculpted rocker panel, new 19-inch black machined-finish alloy wheels (standard on XSE and optional on SE)  a subtle rear spoiler lip, aggressive front bumper, and rear bumper with a lower diffuser. The face is much more distinctive with large side intakes flanking the lower bumper’s unique “Catamaran-inspired” accents, a high and slim upper intake encompassing the central Toyota badge, and a powerfully expressive gloss black mesh grille. A unique rear bumper with distinctive corner lines and smoke-tinted rear combination lamps highlight the changes at the rear. 
 
Development of the all-new Camry has been advanced by Toyota’s company-wide implementation of Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA). TNGA builds upon Toyota’s engineering and design strengths to make every new vehicle even better, with the all-new Toyota Camry being the first vehicle to take full advantage of the new architecture for creating fun-to-drive vehicles.

TNGA is much more than an approach to designing a vehicle’s platform; it is a new strategy that strengthens the development of Toyota vehicles going forward in an unprecedented manner, while playing an important role as the driving force behind the transformation of the company itself as it incorporates many ways of working with a variety of new and advanced technologies.


While each department involved in the development of new vehicles advanced the “kaizen” or continuous improvement within their respective area of design/engineering expertise to make every Toyota vehicle even better, the development of the new TNGA-based Camry progressed as a single unified team that encompassed all areas of the vehicle’s development.


The all-new Camry’s TNGA-based body/platform has created a new dimension of design freedom that includes an extended wheelbase and a wider vehicle stance, realizing a stylish and sporty new design aesthetic.


Along with the new platform, an all-new 2.5-liter four-cylinder Dynamic Force Engine, new Direct Shift-8AT eight-speed automatic transmission and a new double wishbone rear suspension design are all representative technologies that have evolved through TNGA. The most noticeable change for the driver will be that TNGA will deliver an unprecedented level of driving enjoyment through dynamic and spirited handling capability.
 
 
Like the new Camry’s conventional gasoline powertrain, the new Toyota Hybrid System (THS II)  has been engineered to provide spirited performance and driving enjoyment—including new Sequential Shiftmatic technology that allows the driver to “shift” the continuously-variable transmission (CVT), mimicking a quick-shifting six-speed automatic transmission via paddle shifters (on SE grade) or with the console-mounted shift lever—while simultaneously achieving an optimal balance between high power output and exemplary energy efficiency.

The 2018 Camry Hybrid is available in three grades, LE, SE, and XLE.  In addition to its enhanced handling and driving performance, the hybrid version of the new Camry achieves outstanding fuel efficiency with a best-in-class EPA-estimated mpg of 51 city/ 53 highway/52 combined on the LE grade, an impressive 30 percent increase for combined mpg, and 44 city/47 highway/46 combined on the SE and XLE, reflecting an increase of 21 percent for combined mpg.


Dynamic performance is assured thanks to optimal control of the engine working in concert with the electric motor (MG2), while exemplary energy efficiency is achieved by using both electric motors (MG1 and MG2) for hybrid battery charging.


Driving characteristics and trunk room are improved through the implementation of the new TNGA packaging as it allows for the hybrid system’s battery pack to be moved from the trunk area to beneath the rear seat, positioning the battery weight at a lower center of gravity axis.


The updated Power Control Unit (PCU) of the new hybrid system plays a key role in improving the operational efficiency of this eco-sensitive powertrain.


Thanks to improvements in the conversion efficiency of the PCU and the transaxle/electric motor, they combine to reduce energy loss by a total of approximately 20 percent. Additionally, improvements to cooling system efficiency has reduced energy loss by about 10 percent.
 
 
The first-ever 2018 Toyota C-HR – a stylish and technology-filled subcompact SUV crossover vehicle -- represents a leap forward in design and innovation.  The C-HR has the sportiness to impress thanks to Deputy Chief Engineer, Hiro Koba, who is a diehard racer with speed coursing through his veins. Koba and team made sure the C-HR exhilarates its driver anytime, anywhere, satisfying mischief-makers and trend-setters alike.
 
The  2018 Toyota C-HR  was developed on the Nürburgring. I had the opportunity to drive it around a bit  - including I-85 at 3:00pm - and it really does handle tight turns quite nicely.  This TNGA platform is a wonderful advancement for Toyota’s vehicle dynamics. It goes around a corner much faster than you’d think.  
 
Corey Proffitt, East Coast Communications Manager, Toyota North America.

The all-new 2018 Toyota Camry.

The first-ever 2018 Toyota C-HR (Coupe High-Rider).

Stylish and technology-filled 2018 Toyota C-HR.

The 2018 Toyota C-HR wheel of control for mischief-makers and trend-setters.
 
Visit your Toyota dealers to see these works of art, soon.
 
 

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Bonnie Morét is an award-winning photographer recognized by The Georgia Council of the Arts as "an exceptional representation of contemporary Georgia art work." Her photography is featured on Georgia Public Broadcast's Georgia Traveler. Her exhibitions include Fifth Annual Exposure Awards at Musee du Louvre in Paris, France, Art Takes Miami at Scope Art during Art Basel Miami, Metro Montage XIII at the Marietta/Cobb Museum of Art, World of Water at the Georgia Aquarium, Open Walls at Black Box Gallery in Portland, Oregon, Wholly Georgia: A Look at the Effects of Southern Religious Culture, sponsored by the Art History League and Georgia State University, at Mint Gallery in Atlanta, Georgia, 6x6 at the Rochester Contemporary Arts Center in Rochester, New York, @Phonography: Dialogue in the Wireless Age, at 3 Ring Circus in New Orleans, Louisiana, and About Lands and Lives of the Civil War at the 6th Cavalry Museum in Ft. Oglethorpe, Georgia. Her photography appears in Modern Luxury/The Atlantan, Jezebel Magazine, and hangs in the executive offices at the Georgia State Capitol as part of the Art of Georgia exhibit. Corporate clients include Atlanta Ballet, Atlanta History Center, Chanel Cosmetics, Christian Dior Cosmetics, Sharp Mountain Vineyards, PM Realty Group, Granite Properties, Road Atlanta, Patrón Tequila, StubHub, CBM Records and The Washington Auto Show.