Toyota Celebrates Children's Visions for the Cars of the Future

EPSOM, UNITED KINGDOM – March 17, 2011: Cars that can fly, cars that run on water and a limousine boasting twin hot tubs inside: these were among the many colourful and inventive ideas produced by the winners of the UK section of the Toyota Dream Car Art competition.

The winners’ achievements were celebrated at a recent prize-giving ceremony hosted at Toyota’s head office in Surrey, attended by many of the young artists and their families.

Toyota chairman Naoya Taniguchi presented the winners with their certificates and prizes and told the audience: “The goal of the competition was to create opportunities for children to have fun drawing their dream car of the future. We wanted to see how their imaginations could run wild and inspire creativity.

“Dreams and how we can inspire the young people of tomorrow are very important to Toyota. The subject of ‘future cars’ and future technology is at the heart of our business, which is why we spend more on research and development than any other vehicle manufacturer.”

The event was hosted by John Thomson, Toyota Marketing Director, who said: “This was the first year we held the competition in the UK and it proved very popular with hundreds of entries across each age category. The judging panel was impressed with the level of creativity, originality and, above all, imagination from everyone who entered.”

All fifteen short listed finalists will now go forward to the global competition.