On Thursday, Toyota’s chief executive officer Akio Toyoda announced that he will step down to become the board chairman and give his position to the company’s luxury brand leader and chief branding officer, Koji Sato.
The Toyota Times first released the announcement, stating that the transition will happen at the end of the fiscal year, in April.
Toyoda, 66, said that stepping into the new role will give the company a smooth transition as the younger, 53-year-old Sato takes his place as president and CEO, per the Toyota Times.
“Being young is itself a key attribute,” Toyoda said in the announcement Thursday. “To promote change in an era in which the future is unpredictable, the head of management must continue to stand on the front lines. For that, stamina, energy, and passion are indispensable.”
“Change,” is something that the car company has resisted in the past under Toyoda, as reported by Reuters. Toyoda didn’t want to move toward more electrical vehicles, citing that Toyota’s hybrid model — like the latest launch of the hybrid Toyota Crown 2023 — was better.
Anders Schelde, chief investment officer of Danish pension fund company AkademikerPension, told Reuters that his company has encouraged Toyoda to move forward with creating electric vehicles and sees the switch of the presidency as a potential “fresh start.”
Even though Toyoda has not embraced change in the past, the company’s success has grown under his care. This last fiscal year, revenue has increased by $242 billion, a 15% increase from last year, per The Wall Street Journal. The company is set to make $22 billion in profit alone.
Sato said in the announcement that he “will endeavor to fully redesign Toyota into a mobility company,” without giving much clarity yet on what that means for the future.