Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Toyota bid farewell to Toyoda Akio era!

At the beginning of the new year, the car circle shook violently.

Toyota boss Akio Toyoda revealed in an interview with the media that he would resign as Toyota president (similar to CEO) on April 1 and then take over as chairman.

▲ Toyota officially announced that its successor is Heiji Sato, the chairman of Lexus, and the former chairman, Takehi Uchiyamada, will officially retire.

▲ Toyoda Akio (left), Sato Heiji (center) and Takeshi Neiyama's adjustment is shocking enough for the entire auto industry, after all, Toyota is already the largest car company in the world.

In terms of sales, Toyota sold more than 10 million vehicles worldwide in 2022, while Volkswagen sold only 8.26 million vehicles. Toyota ranked first in the world for three years in a row. In terms of market capitalization, Toyota ranked second in the industry with a market capitalization of 1.267011 trillion as of December 30, 2022. The first place is Tesla, who has shrunk by more than 60% and has a market capitalization of 2.645642 trillion.

Taken together, Toyota is currently the largest car company in the world, and the actual operators of the largest car companies have changed, indicating that Toyota's development strategy may also be adjusted, which will reshape the pattern of the automobile industry.

Toyota officials also revealed a similar view, which believes that with the personnel changes of Toyota's top management, the company is expected to start a new chapter.

After this adjustment, Akio Toyoda will leave Toyota's management line, thus liberating himself and looking for new breakthroughs for Toyota's future development.

Sato will be the actual trader of Toyota in the next stage, and Toyota is also undergoing electrification transformation, but Akio Toyoda, who has repeatedly said that he is not optimistic about electric cars, may not be able to lead Toyota to win over electrification.

Toyota is competing with Tesla, the leader of the electric vehicle industry, by implementing the new strategy, according to Japanese media Asahi Shimbun. It is clear that this will be a heavy burden on Mr Sato.

So, how is Toyota doing? Why did Akio Toyoda step down at this time? And why is Henji Sato valued by Akio Toyoda?

01. Toyota's first decline in sales of pure electric models in 10 years is difficult to support the new energy transformation of fuel giants, and the transformation speed of Japanese brands is obviously lagging behind. Toyota is the representative of hesitation.

Sales of Japanese cars in China in 2022 were only 4.092 million, down 10.3% from a year earlier, second only to Korean (34.7%), according to the Federation of passengers. At the same time, Japan's market share fell below 20% again, down 2.7 percentage points from the previous year.

Toyota sold 1.9406 million vehicles in China in 2022, down 0.2% from a year earlier, according to official Toyota figures, the first time Toyota has seen a decline in sales in the Chinese market in nearly a decade. As can be seen from the chart below, although Toyota's sales in China have shown an overall growth trend in the past decade, it became a turning point in 2022, which was significantly lower than in 2021.

▲ Toyota China 2013-2022 sales figures are specific to brand segments. Despite the overall sales trend of Guangzhou Automobile Toyota and FAW Toyota, Lexus cumulative sales of 183900 vehicles in 2022, down nearly 19% from a year earlier. Toyota is already in great danger.

In addition, taking into account the annual insurance volume of Toyota new energy vehicles in 2022, we can see that the overall risk volume of Toyota new energy vehicles is lower. The dangerous quantity of plug-in and pure electric models are polarized. The number of plug-in models is gradually decreasing, and the number of pure electric models is very low, but pure electric model sales have soared since November and December, with pure tram sales peaking in December, with a total of 2585 pure trams sold, of which 2524 are bZ4X.

▲ 2022 Toyota new energy vehicle insurance volume although pure electricity sales have increased, but with the domestic pure electric vehicle brand often tens of thousands of monthly sales is still not comparable, even compared with the old rival Volkswagen, also slightly shabby.

According to the data released by the Federation of passengers, bZ4X, which carried the banner of Toyota's pure tram sales in December, failed to make the top 15 list of new energy SUV, indicating that its electrification is still in the dilemma of "lack of stamina".

▲ December 2022 New Energy SUV sales ranking although Toyota officially uses the impact of the epidemic, chip shortage, rising raw material prices and other reasons to explain the sluggish sales in the Chinese market, Toyota lags behind the electric tide and is unable to adapt to the fierce competition in the car market is the root cause of the decline in sales.

02. In an era of such fierce competition, Toyota can no longer remain unchanged. Toyota is now in an important time of transformation, Toyota internal said. Toyota president will be handed over to a more dynamic young man to take over.

Akio Toyoda, 66, is the grandson of Toyota founder Kiichiro Toyoda and serves as president of the Japan Automobile Industry Association. He joined Toyota in 1984, served as a director in 2000, became Toyota's vice president under the age of 50 in 2005, and has been president since June 2009.

During his 14 years in office, Akio Toyoda has become a meritorious figure in Toyota Motor Company. Under his leadership, Toyota's global sales have been stable at around 90 million to 10 million vehicles in recent years. In 2022, Toyota's global sales exceeded 10 million again, and Toyota became the only 10 million-class automobile group in the world in 2022, and crushed Volkswagen Group, which ranked second in terms of sales, profit and share. this is also the third year in a row that Toyota has won the top spot in global sales.

▲ Toyota president Akio Toyoda, however, even if he laid a foundation for Toyota, with the gradual acceleration of the pace of the automobile revolution, Toyoda did not seize the opportunity of transformation and upgrading of traditional fuel vehicles in time, causing Toyota to fall into a passive position in the fierce competition in the car market.

In terms of intelligence, Toyota officials are indecisive. Even though L3 self-driving was demonstrated on Lexus, Toyota and even Toyoda were embarrassed by the scandal that an unmanned ferry hit an athlete at the Tokyo Olympic Games. In terms of electrification, Akio Toyoda took the lead in standing in a mixed camp and announced that he was irreconcilable with the Pure Electric camp, attracting criticism from people inside and outside the industry, and missed the opportunity in electrification.

In a video announcing his resignation as president, Akio Toyoda admitted that he had been in charge of Toyota over the years and was "frustrated that he had not changed the company founded by his grandfather." Akio Toyoda believes that changing the coach is the best choice for Toyota to deal with transformation and upgrading.

After stepping down as president, Akio Toyoda will take up the post of chairman of Toyota Motor Company. Although Akio Toyoda does not manage the company's specific business, he has become a core figure in Toyota's top leadership.

It is worth noting that Tesla, Toyota's rival in electrification, is also considering replacing CEO personnel, and Musk is also selecting suitable CEO candidates.

03. After 30 years of hard work, Mr. Sato became president of Toyota. By contrast, the big cake is a heavy burden on Mr. Sato's shoulders.

Henji Sato is currently the brand CEO of Lexus and the Gazoo Racing CEO of Toyota's high-performance department. Mr. Sato is 53 years old, the same age as Mr. Toyoda when he was president.

▲ Sato joined Toyota in 1992, mainly engaged in the technical field. The classic hybrid models, the Prius and the Corolla, have become popular models in North America and China.

It is worth mentioning that the Prius, operated by Henji Sato, as the ancestor of the hybrid industry, created a classic wedge-shaped model, equipped with mature gas-electric hybrid technology, fuel saving and environmental protection (official fuel consumption 4.3L / 100km), strong power and other characteristics. The Prius was officially launched in 1997, becoming the world's first mass-produced hybrid model and the best-selling hybrid model on the market, especially in North America and Japan. It is no exaggeration to say that the Prius makes Toyota lead the world in hybrid.

Since Mr. Sato, who is behind the Prius, joined Lexus in 2016, Mr. Sato's promotion has accelerated, running Lexus independently in less than four years, winning the position of brand CEO and serving as Toyota's chief brand officer.

It is worth noting that Mr Sato is also an advocate of electrification. While at the helm of Lexus, Sato led the development of the first pure electric model. Under its leadership, high-end brand Lexus has made steady progress with an annual sales growth rate of 6%.

The ▲ Lexus pure electric model, the RZ, was unveiled at the 2022 Guangzhou Motor Show. Mr. Sato said Mr. Toyoda asked him at the end of last year if he would like to take the post of president, which he took as a joke.

▲ Sato Heiji (left) and Toyoda Akio (right) are technologically involved, and have outstanding achievements in brand operation. Compared with Akio Toyoda, who criticizes electrification, Sato always adheres to a positive and enterprising attitude on the road of electrification, which may be the reason why Toyota urgently changed its coach at the beginning of the new year.

04. Conclusion: now the pressure is on Henji Sato in 2022. Tesla, a pure power giant that Toyota has always regarded as a rival, has created a sales myth of 1.31 million vehicles, while Toyota's partner BYD is also gradually posing a threat to Toyota.

In terms of electric transformation, Toyota still has a lot of problems to solve.

In announcing his resignation, Akio Toyoda said that Mr. Sato is charged with the mission of leading the young team to transform the mobile travel company. Can Henji Sato take up the unfinished mission of Akio Toyoda and lead Toyota to a "renaissance"? We'll see.

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: car thing (ID:chedongxi), author: you Yan

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