Toyota City, Japan, April 30, 2020―Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) announced that today it provided Showa University Hospital a specially designed transport vehicle for seriously ill COVID-19 patients. The Toyota Hiace-based vehicle was developed and outfitted by Toyota Auto Body Co., Ltd. based on a variety of requests from medical facilities. This is the first time for Toyota to provide a transport vehicle for seriously ill COVID-19 patients.
The specially designed, Hiace-based transport vehicle for seriously ill COVID-19 patients was developed as an “airborne droplet circulation control vehicle.” It features an interior barrier that creates a forward compartment, which houses the driver’s seat and front-passenger seat, and a rearward compartment, which houses the rear passenger seat area. An exhaust fan continuously expels air from the rearward compartment out of the vehicle, helping to prevent the air in the rearward compartment from circulating to the forward compartment.
With a desire to provide vehicles that can at least play a small role in combatting COVID-19, Toyota, while listening to the needs of those on the frontlines of the medical sector, has been considering the best ways it can help. The transport vehicle for seriously ill COVID-19 patients provided today joins 11 transport vehicles for mildly infected patients already provided by the Toyota Group to such entities as medical facilities and local governments.