Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda to step aside, become chairman Action News Jax [Video]

TOKYO — (AP) — Toyota set up a new leadership team Thursday in what the Japanese automaker said was a move to stay abreast of social changes like electrification and becoming a wider “mobility company.”

Chief Executive and President Akio Toyoda, the grandson of the company’s founder, will become chairman. He was prominent in the announcement and appeared to be still very much in control.

Chief branding officer Koji Sato, who has been managing the Lexus luxury division and Toyota motor racing, was tapped the new president.

“I am going to give it my all,” Sato said. “The new team will lead the shift in the transition to a mobility company to provide the freedom of mobility to all people.”

Sato, 53, appeared in an online news conference with Toyoda and its Takeshi Uchiyamada, who is seen as the “father” of the Prius hybrid model and is giving up the …