The company that kicked off the EV revolution and inspired a generation of Birkenstock wearing motorists with the Prius a quarter century ago is now being accused of stalling efforts to electrify its entire line of cars and trucks by 2030..That’s because activist investors are plotting to oust Toyota’s chairman over his reluctance to commit to 100% EV production at its annual meeting in Aichi Prefecture this week..It is an unprecedented showdown between green-minded investors and Japan’s most valuable company — and indeed, one of the world’s largest automakers — who are opposing a motion to re-elect Akio Toyoda as its chairman over the company’s environmental and climate change policies..The company is worth USD$201 billion.. Aichi PrefectureToyota’s headquarters is in Aichi, Japan .Specifically, they are urging the company to go fully electric with its vehicle offerings by 2030 and detail lobbying efforts in Western nations against tougher fuel efficiency standards. .In May, a trio of European pension funds who collectively hold $400 million worth of the company’s stock submitted motions urging the automaker to improve climate change disclosure..The shareholder group, which includes Danish pension fund AkademikerPension, Norway’s Storebrand Asset Management and Dutch pension investment company APG Asset Management, is also calling on Toyota to commit to a comprehensive annual review of its climate-related lobbying and whether it aligns with the Paris accord and its own goal of being carbon neutral by 2050..“We’re concerned that Toyota is missing out on profits from soaring EV sales, jeopardizing its valuable brand and cementing its global laggard status,” Anders Schelde, AkademikerPension’s chief investment officer said in a release..Other major pension funds in the US, including the California Public Employees' Retirement System and the Office of the New York City Comptroller, have followed suit by voting against Toyoda’s re-election. Even the Anglican Church pension plan has weighed in.. Toyota stock chartToyota stock chart. .The move is also being supported by environmental groups including Greenpeace which accuses Toyota of “actively working to slow the uptake of electric vehicles.”.“When Toyota introduced the Prius hybrid in 1997, the company truly was a leader in reducing car pollution. But that was more than two decades ago. Toyota's transition to cleaner vehicles has stalled and the company is now one of the world's biggest roadblocks to electric vehicles,” it said..Last summer an investigative report by Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald caused a stir when it found that the country’s automobile industry — led by Toyota — had engaged in a secret campaign to limit fuel efficiency standards to a level it said would leave Oz “with some of the weakest carbon emission rules in the world.”.This, despite the fact the company plans to introduce 30 fully electric vehicles this year. .For his part, Toyoda — the grandson of the company’s founder Kiichiro Toyoda, who has been described as the ‘Japan’s Thomas Edison’ — has questioned whether the world, much less the US and Japan, can provide the charging infrastructure needed to support an all-electric vehicle fleet..Toyoda’s other sin is questioning where the electricity to charge a planet of electric vehicles is going to come from, along with the environmental impact of securing what it describes in its SEC filings as “conflict minerals” to produce them. .Not surprising, Toyota's board has recommended shareholders vote against the resolutions. In a statement it said the company is committed to carbon neutrality by 2050 but needs the “flexibility to make quick adjustments.”.It comes after environmental activists disrupted Volkswagen’s AGM in Berlin last month, parading topless and throwing cake at board members over its presence in Xinjiang, China.
