Toyota Motor Corp said on Thursday that Akio Toyoda would step down as chairman and chief executive to become chairman from April 1, handing over the reins of Japan’s biggest automaker to the company’s top branding officer.
Toyota said Koji Sato, 53, would become the new CEO. Representative Director Takeshi Uchiyamada will step down as chairman.
The issue of who will replace Toyoda, the 66-year-old grandson of the company’s founder, has increasingly attracted investor attention.
During more than a decade at the helm, Toyoda presided over the carmaker during a period of rapid change in the auto industry and growing uncertainty about how legacy automakers like Toyota would respond to new — and often nimble — challengers. Can face challenges from others. Tesla.
During his time there, Toyota also came under fire from environmental investors and groups because of what they said was a reluctance to embrace electric vehicles.
Toyoda, speaking at a news conference, said his tenure at the helm of Toyota began with “crisis after crisis” from the effects of the global recession in 2009, to Toyota’s own recall and security crisis following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. until the interruption of in northern Japan.