People arrive to attend an annual shareholders’ meeting for Toyota Motor in the city of Toyota, Aichi Prefecture on June 14, 2023. Toyota is under pressure from large institutional investors for chairman Akio Toyoda to step down over his lukewarm embrace of electric vehicles.
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A small number of overseas institutional investors had agitated against the reappointment of Toyoda — a grandson of the founder of Toyota Motors — as chairman, taking issue with the independence of the company’s board, given that he was the Toyota’s chief executive until April 1 this year.
Some investors have also criticized the company’s strategy of focusing on multiple fronts across hybrid, gasoline and electric vehicles has hurt its competitiveness. Toyota argues that this helps to cater to the diverse needs of customers in different regions, which they anticipate will differ further in future — pledging to “accelerate localization” in plans they unveiled on Tuesday.
Toyota has a goal of achieving sales of 1.5 million all-electric vehicles per year by 2026, and selling 3.5 million all-electric vehicles annually by 2030.
The unprecedented challenges by Toyota’s shareholders this year come as Japanese companies are coming under increasing pressure to better engage its shareholders in improving capital efficiency and overall profitability.
