According to a statement released by Toyota Motor on June 15, 84.57% of shareholders approved the re-election of Akio Toyota as Chairman at this week's annual general meeting. In comparison, a year ago, 96% of shareholders voted in favor of Akio Toyota. It is reported that some foreign investors had previously opposed the nomination for Akio Toyota's re-election.
While this voting result does not change Akio Toyota's re-election, the decrease in approval votes may be seen as a sign of frustration from a minority who feel disappointed with Toyota, especially as competitors surpass Toyota in the transition to pure electric vehicles. Akio Toyota has pursued a strategy of "providing various choices to customers" for achieving carbon neutrality, which involves investing in electric vehicles, hydrogen fuel, and alternative fuel vehicles alongside the sales of gasoline and hybrid vehicles.
The outcome of Toyota's annual general meeting, along with the positive publicity surrounding its electric vehicle strategy, helped boost its stock price by 15% in the past six days, marking the largest gain since August 2020.
Prior to the general meeting, Toyota revealed details of a one-day technical briefing held at a research facility near Mount Fuji last week. Analysts and journalists attended the event, which included test drives and demonstrations, aiming to enhance their confidence in Toyota's goal of selling 1.5 million pure electric vehicles annually by 2026 and 3.5 million by 2030.
Before the general meeting, three European asset management companies, collectively holding $400 million worth of Toyota shares, requested transparent lobbying on climate policies that appeared favorable to electric vehicles or sought to ban the combustion of fossil fuels in automobiles. However, shareholders rejected the proposal during the meeting. The Toyota board opposed the proposal, stating that the company has already disclosed data and information related to climate change.
