Century: Toyota’s Ultra-Luxury Vision Curated Lifestyle
Century ushers in Toyota’s next era a full ultra-luxury lifestyle brand combining city design, mobility sea & air, and health ecosystems.
When Toyota dreamed beyond cars, Century is the lifestyle in motion
The shift we’ve long predicted has arrived: Century is no longer just a top-tier car, but the core of a new, curated ecosystem. With Woven City now live, Toyota is weaving a world where ultra-luxury mobility meets ultra-living.
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Why does this matter right now?
In a world where brands compete not just on specs but on sensibility, Toyota is repositioning itself from automaker to lifestyle architect. The newly formed **Century brand** is being positioned above Lexus, marking Toyota’s move into a rarified realm of ultra luxury. Autoblog details how Century will feature exclusive design and bespoke offerings. Nippon.com reports Toyota’s statement that the Century is being elevated from a single model to a full brand with unique identity.
Meanwhile, Woven City Toyota’s real-world testbed for new mobility, energy, robotics, urban infrastructure has officially launched as a prototype city whose first wave of residents began moving in September 2025. Toyota’s Global Newsroom confirms the move, while Reuters frames it as the boundary between research campus and lived experience.
Now, imagine Century not just as a car in that city but the organizing principle of it. A curated lifestyle where your car, your clinic, your home, even your sea and air mobility blend in a single orchestration. We predicted a move like this when we speculated in prior TestMiles columns (see Future Mobility Threads and Luxury Mobility Manifesto) that Toyota might eventually build a “beyond-automobile” brand. Today that speculation gains real contours.
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How does it compare to rivals?
In the ultra-luxury space, the big names are Rolls-Royce, Bentley, maybe bespoke one-offs from Koenigsegg or Pagani. Toyota’s Century will compete on curated constellations of living, not raw horsepower or track lap times. MotorTrend’s coverage of the **Century One of One concept** emphasizes sliding passenger-side doors, a lounge-style layout, and a coupe-SUV silhouette that defies category norms. MotorTrend
The difference is, Rolls builds cars. Century wants to build cities or at least pieces of them. The Woven City project is already a working prototype of this shift. Toyota Pressroom describes Phase 1’s completion: roughly 47,000 m² of built environment ready to host co-creation. The Verge reports that the city will host some 360 residents initially, scaling to about 2,000 over time.
Among rivals, none has attempted this full vertical: creating not just the vehicles, but the habitat they live in. Lexus is still playing in the realm of premium carmaking; Century is aiming for “ultra-living.”
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Who is this for and who should skip it?
This is for the ultra cognoscenti, those who don’t just buy a car but subscribe to an ambiance, a philosophy. The clientele is likely to be global executives, ultra-high net worth individuals, cultural patrons, even sovereign-level residencies.
If you hunt for torque curves, track performance, or racing pedigree, Century isn’t for you this is not about sportscar bragging rights. If you dislike curated ecosystems or prefer open competitive markets rather than proprietary “lifestyle”: walk away.
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What is the long-term significance?
Century is potentially the anchor of what could become a Toyota-curated city brand what if entire enclaves, districts, even islands, are designed for “Century living”? We already see Woven City as the seed. Toyota has been working on Woven City since unveiling the idea in 2020, and now in 2025 the first stage is live. Toyota Newsroom confirms residents are moving in. Toyota’s announcement of its investment arm, TIP shows how Toyota is funding ecosystem growth with 100 billion yen in capital to support collaborating startups and technologies.
In time, the Century brand could extend beyond land. City design, marine craft (catamarans and luxury yachts), aerial mobility (VTOL, air taxis), healthcare nodes, wellness infrastructure all woven into one unified lifestyle brand curated by Toyota. It becomes less about just an ultra-luxury car and more about an entire habitat mobility, wellness, culture, infrastructure.
The transition is a bold bet: Toyota is transforming from vehicle manufacturer to orchestrator of experience platforms. Century is its first marquee to stake that claim. We may look back and say that this was always the logical extension of Lexus, just delayed until Toyota had the software, the city-lab (Woven City), and the financial muscle in place.
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In short: Century will not only be driven it will be lived. The era of ultra-curated mobility has begun, and Century is staking a claim not just in garages, but in lives.
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