Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda says he’s “enthusiastic about the timing and choice of a successor.”

The CEO, talking on the automaker’s annual common assembly on Wednesday, was replying to questions on succession planning on the world’s largest automaker.

There was no indication from the corporate that Toyoda plans to step down after main the corporate for 13 years.

Toyoda has presided over the automaker’s transfer to a battery-electric automobile lineup, a shift that some have criticized as being too sluggish.

In December, Toyoda introduced the automaker was committing 8 trillion yen ($70 billion) to electrifying its vary by 2030, half of it to develop a battery-electric automobile lineup, because it appears to be like to faucet a rising marketplace for zero-emission automobiles.

However the automaker, which is a relative latecomer to full-electric automobiles, stated it anticipated annual gross sales of battery-only automobiles to achieve simply 3.5 million autos by the tip of the last decade as the corporate nonetheless pursues a multi-pronged, carbon-reduction technique that additionally consists of hybrids and hydrogen-powered autos.

Toyoda, 66, a grandson of firm founder Kiichiro Toyoda, steered the corporate by way of a darkish section when Toyota gross sales slumped after the recall of tens of millions of autos and the corporate reported billions of {dollars} in losses.

“I’d decide somebody who understands the corporate’s philosophy as my successor,” he stated at Wednesday’s assembly.

Toyoda has sought to reform Toyota’s company tradition, spending extra time with youthful executives, and chopping again some senior positions.

In 2020, he appointed firm veterans Maeda and Kenta Kon to prime roles. Each have been 51 on the time — a comparatively younger age for prime Toyota executives.

Toyota, which offered 10.5 million autos in 2021, far outstripping closest rival Volkswagen Group, has repeatedly lower manufacturing this 12 months, stricken by a worldwide chip crunch.

Reuters contributed to this report