Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda Steps Aside, Which May Accelerate the Company's EV Rollout

• Akio Toyoda, the president and CEO of the Toyota Motor Corporation, will step down on April 1 and become the chairman of the board of directors.

• He will be replaced by Koji Sato, current president of both the Lexus brand and Gazoo Racing, Toyota's motorsports and performance car division.

• Under Toyoda, the automaker has remained committed to hybrids and slow to adopt EVs, but that may change under new, younger leadership.

Akio Toyoda, the president and CEO of the Toyota Motor Corporation, will relinquish his position as head of the Japanese automaker on April 1, the company announced today. Toyoda, 66, will become the chairman of the board of directors, with current chairman Takeshi Uchiyamada retiring, although he will remain a member of the board. Toyoda is the grandson of the company's founder, Kiichiro Toyoda, and has been the CEO since 2009.

He will be succeeded by Koji Sato, currently the president of both the Lexus brand and Gazoo Racing, Toyota's motorsports division that has also developed the brand's road-going high-performance cars including the GR Supra and GR Corolla. Sato, 53, started in this role in 2020.

The announcement could signal a strategic change in Toyota's approach to electric vehicles. Although the company pioneered hybrids with the Prius, under Toyoda's reign the automaker has been reluctant to commit to a transition to a fully electric lineup, citing concerns over the abundance of the raw materials that such a move would require.