Akio Toyoda is one of the best-known suits in the car world. Not only did he lead Toyota for 14 years, he’s also the grandson of the firm’s founder, which makes him automotive royalty, and is a fully-fledged car-guy, having raced at the Nurburgring 24 Hours and championed the development of cars like the Supra and GR86. But not everyone, it seems, is a fan.
Two major U.S. pension funds have voted against the re-election of Toyoda after a pair of proxy advisory firms raised questions about the governance of the company’s board. Reuters reports that one of those advisory firms, Glass Lewis, explicitly recommended that shareholders not re-elect Toyoda because he was responsible for the board’s lack of independence.
The Pension funds dishing out the ‘No’ votes are the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the Office of the New York City Comptroller (CalPERS). Both have a history of causing disruptions when they feel a cause deserves it and have also voted in this instance in support of Toyota being more transparent about its lobbying on climate change.
Related: Toyota CEO, President And All-Round Car Guy Akio Toyoda Is Stepping Down
Toyota itself had recommended to shareholders that they not support that resolution, but CalPERS backed it, saying that it believed “shareholders would benefit from improved disclosure of lobbying activities,” Reuters reports.
However, as an editorial from The Washington Post observes, there’s another possible reason the pension funds and others are targeting Toyoda and that has to do with the fact that he has questioned the climate lobby’s electric-vehicle orthodoxy:
However, as pointed out by an editorial from The Washington Post, there may be an additional motive behind the pension funds and others targeting Toyoda. This motive relates to his questioning of the the prevailing dogma of electric vehicles advocated by the climate lobby:
“But Toyota’s corporate governance model is old news. The sudden concern suggests it is merely a pretext for punishing Mr. Toyoda for the heresy of doubting the West’s hell-bent EV transition. He made news in December when he claimed that a ‘silent majority’ in the auto industry “is wondering whether EVs are really OK to have as a single option. But they think it’s the trend so they can’t speak out loudly.”
Although Toyota was at the forefront of automobile electrification during the early part of the 21st century with the Prius, the automaker has come under fire recently for its slow rollout of fully electric cars, and some of the those that have appeared, like the bZ4X, aren’t as good as older rivals. Akio Toyoda, who stepped down from his position of president of Toyota this spring after 14 years to become chairman, has also openly questioned whether an EV-only future is the correct path for the auto industry.
“To achieve carbon neutrality, we must remember that carbon is the real enemy, not a particular powertrain,” Toyoda told reporters late last year. “And frankly, BEVs are not the only way to achieve the world’s carbon neutrality goals. At Toyota we believe in creating a full portfolio of carbon reducing choices for our customers from hybrid electric vehicles, plug-in electric vehicles, battery electric cars, and fuel cell vehicles.”