Toyota’s Watanabe may leave post

Bloomberg

Watanabe intends to take responsibility for Toyota’s operating loss forecast of 150 billion yen ($1.7 billion) for the year ending in March, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified. "Akio is the natural successor, a likelihood that’s been speculated for years, even before Watanabe made it to the top spot," said John Shook, a University of Michigan management instructor and former Toyota manager.

Watanabe, 66, took his post in June 2005, positioning the Toyota City, Japan-based company to pass General Motors this year for the world sales crown. He also presided over the 13 percent sales slump through November in the U.S. where domestic automakers crippled by falling sales are being given government aid to avoid bankruptcy.

Toyoda, 52, an executive vice president, serves on management boards for Toyota divisions including the unit that handles operations in the Americas. He is the grandson of company founder Kiichiro Toyoda.

Executive shift
He joined Toyota in 1984, working in a variety of posts before being promoted to a senior management position in 2000. His father, Shoichiro, was the last Toyoda family member to lead the company, stepping down as president in 1992. Shoichiro Toyoda, 83, now is Toyota’s honorary chairman.

The executive shift was reported Tuesday by the Tokyo- based Asahi newspaper. Separately yesterday, Toyota said it cut global production 27 percent last month, the biggest in at least two decades. Output fell to 589,505 vehicles in November, led by a 55 percent drop in Europe, the company said in a statement. Japan plunged production 27 percent to 288,138.

As president, Watanabe oversaw an expansion of North American manufacturing capacity that included a $1.3 billion investment for a San Antonio plant that opened in November 2006 to help win a larger share of the full-size pickup truck market.

Sales of the Texas-built Tundra plummeted 28 percent through November, undercut by rising fuel prices in the first half of 2008. Toyota idled the factory for 15 weeks and this month said it would indefinitely halt work on a Prius plant in Mississippi.Dwindling U.S. vehicle demand may test Toyota’s record of never shedding workers in 24 years of building cars in the country.