Toyota Motor‘s president and chief government, Akio Toyoda, will step down from his publish on April 1, to be succeeded by present Chief Branding Officer Koji Sato, the Japanese automaker mentioned Thursday.

Sato, 53, has been heading the Toyota Lexus division and the GAZOO racing firm since 2020.

Toyoda will turn into the brand new chairman of the board, whereas the present Chairman Takeshi Uchiyamada will proceed as a member of the board.

Toyoda, 66, is the grandson of the carmaker’s founder and has served as chief government since June 2009.

“I assumed one of the best ways to additional Toyota’s transformation can be for me to turn into chairman in assist of a brand new president, and this has led to immediately’s resolution. Chairman Uchiyamada has lengthy supported me in all conceivable methods,” Toyoda mentioned in a translated webcast.

“Looking back, these 13 years have been a interval of struggling to outlive in the future after the following, and that’s my sincere feeling,” he added.

“The present Toyota structural change has been triggered by my resignation,” Uchiyamada mentioned, stressing that he had been contemplating the timing of his retirement for “a while” to make manner for a brand new era.

“The inspiration for passing the baton to the following era has been laid,” he mentioned.

“Vehicles sooner or later will evolve within the idea of mobility itself. Amid such, I hope to protect the important worth of the automobile and suggest new types of mobility,” Sato mentioned, including that this represented the mission of the brand new management crew.

Tokyo-listed shares of Toyota ended the session 0.63% decrease Thursday forward of the announcement.

A pioneer of inexperienced vehicles in 1997 with the introduction of its hybrid Prius, the corporate has more and more fended off criticism over the tempo at which it has pursued fully-electric autos, taking part in catch-up to newcomers akin to Tesla.

In Dec. 2021, it introduced plans to supply 30 EV fashions by 2030. A yr later, in Dec. 2022, it mentioned a consortium it leads secured funding to develop a hydrogen gasoline cell pickup truck within the U.Ok.

Sato on Thursday acknowledged Toyota should proceed its inexperienced efforts: “Power safety, for instance, that may be a large problem that the entire planet must face. And likewise that the endeavor in the direction of carbon neutrality shall be one instance of what we now have to work on.”

— CNBC’s Jihye Lee contributed to this story

Correction: This text has been up to date to mirror that Toyoda was referring to the corporate Toyota when discussing its transformation within the webcast. Sato has been heading the Toyota Lexus division. An earlier model misspelled the identify of the division.