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According to foreign media reports, Toyota will develop a special platform for electric vehicles to improve the competitiveness and efficiency of electric products and reduce production costs at the same time. According to the report, the decision is part of Toyota's plan to start mass production of electric vehicles. Toyota is currently revising its electrification strategy, which aims to make it compete directly with Tesla. As of press time, Toyota officials did not respond to the news, which, if true, marks a major change in Toyota's electrification strategy.

On January 26, Toyota announced a major personnel reshuffle. Akio Toyoda, the third generation of Toyota who has led Toyota for 13 years, stepped down as president from April 1 this year, and appointed Toyota chief brand officer and head of Lexus brand Eiji Sato to take over the new post.

On the same day, Akio Toyoda announced in the ToyotaTimes emergency report that after 14 years, Toyota ushered in the personnel change of the top person in charge, and explained the change.

The full text of the speech made by Akio Toyoda as president is as follows:

The interim board of directors held today decided that the current president, Takeshi Uchiyama, will step down in April, I will be appointed as the new president, and Sato will serve as the new president. In order to inform you as soon as possible, we have arranged this live broadcast in a short time. First of all, allow me to introduce the reasons for this sudden decision. As President Uchiyama is about to resign, and in order to further promote Toyota's reform, I decided to serve as president and perform the duty of assisting the new president. President Uchiyama has supported my work behind the scenes for a long time, and I would like to take this opportunity to express my deepest gratitude.

When I was appointed president, I was mired in losses caused by the Lehman crisis, and then faced a series of existential crises, such as the global recall crisis and the East Japan earthquake. In retrospect, every day of the past 13 years has been like walking on thin ice and working as hard as I can. This is how I really feel. When I was in crisis, I thought I had two choices ahead of me. One is a short-term shortcut with quick results, and the other is to return to the essence and ideal and face up to the road of your original mind. I chose the latter. Toyota aims to make better cars and become the best car company loved and trusted by stakeholders around the world. In other words, this means that Toyota must do business around products and regions. This is a bumpy road that takes a lot of time to bear fruit, and those who focus on the short term do not understand or support it. It took us a long time, but nonetheless, as Toyota's 370000 members worked hard in every city around the world to produce better cars, our products have changed dramatically, including the rejuvenation of best-selling models such as the Crown and Corolla, and the launch of sports cars such as the 86, Supra and GR Yaris. At the same time, we also pay attention to our commercial vehicles. TNGA, internal company system and regional responsibility system complement each other, so that no matter what type of model we launch, our employees are focused on meeting the needs of the world. I believe that with them, we can create products within Toyota that meet the needs of the world. In 2020, we formulated the Toyota philosophy, which clearly sets out the beliefs and values that must be passed on. I hope that Toyota philosophy will be the place where the next generation of senior managers can return when they encounter confusion. I think during these 13 years, we have laid a solid foundation for the transmission of the next generation of senior managers.

Next, I would like to explain the reasons for appointing Mr. Sato as the new president. First, he worked hard to learn Toyota's philosophy, technology and practice in automobile manufacturing. These are the qualities I want people at the top of Toyota to embody. Another reason is that he likes cars. For a time, Mr. Sato struggled at the Lexus dealer conference about what he should convey. My advice is: I want you to value your personality instead of imitating me. At the time, he responded: if Morizo is a driver, then what I like most is the person who makes cars that make drivers smile. It is important that our products are recognized by our customers. If it is Mr. Sato as our new president, it will further promote our product-centric task. In addition, he is still young, and in order to drive change in unpredictable times, the head of management must continue to stand on the front line, for which endurance, energy and passion are indispensable, and youth itself is a key factor.

I said to Mr. Sato, "Don't try to run the company alone, work hard with the team." In the past 13 years, he is not the only person I have trained, and there are many colleagues with different personalities. Innovation is crucial to creating the future. I believe that when different personalities work together for a common goal, innovation will be created. When I saw the incoming Mr. Sato, I saw a man who was not trying to please me as president of the company, but was pursuing Master Driver and Morizo and wanted to improve the driving experience of Toyota and Lexus. He has always wanted to build better cars, which I think is the passion that drives him.

I'm a carmaker, and I believe that's why I succeeded in transforming Toyota. However, the carmaker is all I have, and I think that's my limit. The mission of the new team led by the incoming Mr. Sato is to transform Toyota into a mobile company. I think Mr. Sato is also a carmaker like me. He is the same age as I was when I was president. He has young people and like-minded colleagues, and I hope this new team will go beyond the limits that I can't break. I believe that the future that the next generation will create. I invite you to look forward to the future of Toyota. Thank you very much.

The above is the translation of Akio Toyoda's speech at the press conference on the same day. The original video can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/kUaoKgCnFOc?t=6

According to Automotive Industry concern, Akio Toyoda was appointed CEO of Toyota in January 2009 and officially took office on June 23, 2009, when he was exactly 53 years old, while Hengji Sato happened to be 53 years old this year. The two men took up the same position at exactly the same time. As Mr Toyoda said, one of the reasons for the sudden decision to make this big personnel change is that Toyota's president needs someone who is more "young, energetic and powerful" to enable Toyota to accelerate its electrification transformation. However, Automotive Industry concern noted that Akio Toyoda's speech at the press conference did not mention Toyota's next specific development strategy, nor did it discuss financial goals. Industry media said that after stepping down as president, Akio Toyoda is likely to continue to be deeply involved in the company's operations as president. However, in Japan, the president is usually the top operator of a company, and the president is the "top consultant" who retires to the second line.

Akio Toyoda, 66, the grandson of Toyota founder Kiichiro Toyoda, went to work in a bank after studying in the United States and later concealed his birth and applied for a job at Toyota. In June 2009, he was unanimously approved by the board of directors to become the president of Toyota and the youngest president in the history of the Toyota Group. During his 13 years at the helm of Toyota, Toyoda also did a number of things, including when Toyota was mired in a quality control storm in 2010 when he personally went to the United States to apologize and then led Toyota through the supply chain chaos after the 311 earthquake.

Now that Akio Toyoda has resigned as president, the new successor has also attracted everyone's attention. Mr. Sato is a long-time technical engineer who loves car manufacturing, has been in charge of parts development for Carola and Prius, and is currently in charge of R & D and production of Lexus cars. At a press conference, Sato said: "I will wholeheartedly inherit the wishes of the president of Toyota, live up to expectations and shoulder the heavy responsibility of leading the company."

However, there is also a severe adjustment in front of Sato. Data show that Toyota's cumulative sales in China fell 0.2% year-on-year to 1.9406 million vehicles in 2022, the first year-on-year decline in Toyota in a decade. According to new car traffic insurance data, Lexus sales of 184000 vehicles in 2022, down 16.06% from a year earlier, plummeted for the first time in its 16 years in China. In addition to the Chinese market, Toyota's new car sales in the United States also declined compared with the same period last year. Honda's cumulative sales in the United States in 2022 were 2.1085 million, down 9.6 percent from the same period last year, lagging behind the American giant General Motors. GM's sales in the US rose 2.5 per cent to 2.2741 million vehicles in 2022 from a year earlier, regaining the top spot in annual US car sales, according to the data. By contrast, Toyota overtook GM with annual sales of 2.332 million vehicles in 2021, making it the first time an overseas car brand won the title in the United States, but this position has been regained by GM a year later.

At present, the car market is in the transformation of "accelerating the electrification of layout", while Toyota motorization has been stagnant, and the layout of pure electric vehicles is very slow, which may be one of the reasons why Toyota's sales are under pressure. as for ‍, after Akio Toyoda leaves office, can Sato, who takes over, lead Toyota out of its predicament to achieve a strategic change? The industry believes that Toyota is currently in a difficult stage of transition and that major reforms are unlikely in the future.

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