After 14 years Akio Toyoda will no longer be the CEO of Toyota

Akio Toyoda will no longer be the CEO of Toyota. The grandson of the founder of the legendary Japanese automotive brand will step aside, while still maintaining an important role within the company. The choice was made in an attempt to rejuvenate the car manufacturer’s management, in order to make it more suitable for the challenges of the contemporary and the future.

Akio Toyoda is 66 years old and has been at the top of Toyota for about 14 years. He will be replaced by Koji Sato , current No. 1 in the Lexus division and Gazoo Racing, the brand dedicated to motorsport and high-performance vehicles from Toyota (such as the GR86 and the Supra).

Akio Toyoda will be the new Chairman of the Board of Directors of Toyota, a role he takes away from Takeshi Uchiyamada , the creator of the Prius, who will however retain a seat on the Board of Directors.

In his last years as a Toyota executive, he had repeatedly spoken out against the ardor with which politics had chosen to impose the transition to electric cars by law . Akio Toyoda had warned public opinion of the risks of a hasty transition, which according to him would risk destroying millions of jobs, causing Japan to lose its leadership in the automotive sector and cutting off the average consumer from the possibility of having a owned car. Toyoda had spoken out in favor of so-called technological neutrality, a flexible approach to the challenges of sustainable mobility where electric cars would play a complementary, and not exclusive, role in lowering the emissions produced by the automotive industry (in concert with hydrogen, e-fuel and other technologies).

Also for this reason, unlike other brands, Toyota has continued to focus and invest heavily in hydrogen and other experimental technologies.