Toyota (7203.T) shareholders meet on Wednesday for their first annual general meeting under new CEO Koji Sato, a day after the Japanese automaker unveiled an ambitious roadmap for solid-state batteries and other electric vehicle (EV) technologies.
The announcement could help the world’s top automaker make its case to investors at a shareholder meeting, where it also faces a resolution from three European asset managers over its climate lobbying, as well as questions about governance.
The Japanese giant has become a target in recent years for green activists and investors who say it has been slow to launch electric vehicles. Toyota is taking a multi-pronged approach to carbon neutrality that includes hybrids and fuel cells, along with standard electric vehicles.
He says this is better for reducing carbon emissions and more practical since customer needs, EV infrastructure and clean energy supplies differ by country.
The detailed roadmap on Tuesday showed that under Sato, who replaced Akio Toyoda, the grandson of the founder who took over as chairman in April, Toyota has embraced much of a facelift that engineers and planners have been developing as options for months.
He said he was developing a dedicated EV platform to lower the cost of new models and a highly automated assembly line that would do away with the conveyor belt system that has defined car production since Henry Ford introduced it more than 100 years ago.
It also said it would use the Giga foundry to reduce production costs, adopting an innovation pioneered by Tesla (TSLA.O) that uses massive aluminum casting machines to reduce vehicle complexity.
Investors sent shares as much as 5 percent on the news.
Interest in the EV pivot could dwarf the challenge from European investors, who say they want more disclosure about its climate-related lobbying.
Toyota’s board urged shareholders to vote against the proposal, saying there were still many obstacles to mass adoption of electric vehicles and that the automaker planned to improve the annual report it has been publishing since 2021 detailing its efforts. climate public relations. .
Separately, some of the major US public pension funds have said they will vote against re-election of Toyoda as chairman, citing what they say is a lack of board independence.
Toyota has previously said that its board meets governance standards set by the Tokyo Stock Exchange. He says Toyoda had been renominated to the board because it would drive Toyota’s transformation from car manufacturing to a company that also provides a range of mobility services.
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/toyota-annual-meeting-ambitious-pivot-may-overshadow-shareholder-challenge-2023-06-13/
Category: Japan
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