Akio Toyoda approved as Toyota chairman with lower vote

AKIO Toyoda was reappointed as Toyota Motor chairman with the lowest shareholder vote since at least 2010 after some foreign investors opposed his nomination.

Toyoda garnered 84.57 per cent of the vote among shareholders at Wednesday’s annual meeting, the world’s largest automaker said in a filing on Thursday (Jun 15). That compares with 96 per cent of the vote a year earlier.

Although the reduced vote doesn’t change Toyoda’s position, the dip may be seen as sign of frustration among a small minority after rivals have outpaced Toyota in the transition to battery-based electric vehicles. Toyoda, who stepped down as chief executive officer in April and became chairman, has embraced a “multi-pathway” approach to carbon neutrality by offering customers various options by selling petrol and hybrid cars while investing in EVs, hydrogen and alternate fuels.

Even so, the results of the annual shareholders’ meeting and an aggressive messaging campaign around the Japanese carmaker’s EV strategy have helped fuel a 15 per cent rally in its shares over the past six days, the biggest jump since August 2020.

In a well-timed move just before the annual meeting, Toyota released details from a day of technology briefings held last week at its research facility near Mount Fuji. Analysts and journalists were given a day of test drives and presentations aimed at bolstering confidence in the company’s ability to sell 1.5 million battery EVs annually by 2026, and 3.5 million by 2030.

Before Wednesday’s shareholders’ meeting, three European asset managers, which collectively hold US$400 million in Toyota shares, were demanding transparency on lobbying over climate policies that appear to favour EVs, or seek to ban cars that burn fossil fuels, but shareholders rejected the proposal at the meeting held at Toyota’s headquarters near Nagoya.

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Toyota’s board opposed the proposal, saying the company is already releasing data and information on its activities pertaining to climate change.

It was also the first shareholder gathering for Koji Sato, who succeeded Toyoda as CEO in April. Sato has said there is no change to his predecessor’s strategy, but the new president has also championed what he calls an “EV-first” approach. BLOOMBERG