Toyota shareholders vote against climate resolution, rear panel

TOYOTA CITY, Japan, June 14 (Reuters) – Shareholders of Toyota Corporation (7203.T) voted on an unprecedented climate stress resolution for the automaker, backing its board of directors at an annual general meeting (AGM) on Wednesday, sending an endorsement to the Japanese. Auto strategy.

Shareholder rejection of the resolution calling for more climate pressure disclosure has been put forward by three European asset managers and is widely expected to be defeated, given the strength of management support among retail investors and the number of Toyota group companies and suppliers in the automaker’s shareholder base.

Shareholders also voted in favor of all 10 board members. This vote, and especially the support of Chairman Akio Toyoda, came into focus after some major US pension funds said they would not vote for Toyoda, citing concerns about the independence of the board.

Voting details have not yet been published.

The shareholder meeting came a day after the world’s largest automaker announced an ambitious electric vehicle (EV) roadmap including details around solid-state batteries and sweeping production changes, sending the strongest signal yet that Toyota wants to grab a larger share of the market. Electric car batteries and raise their share price.

“The Japanese are like Toyota and I think they support Akio,” said 61-year-old Tadashi Imai, an individual shareholder who said he has owned shares in the company for about a decade.

“Toyota’s announcement yesterday of introducing solid-state batteries by 2027 sent the stock up 5%. That’s really impressive, 5%.”

The Japanese giant has become a target in recent years for friendly activists and investors who said it was slow to roll out electric vehicles. Toyota is taking a multi-track approach to carbon neutrality that includes gasoline-electric hybrids and hydrogen fuel cells, along with electric vehicles.

It said its approach is more effective in reducing carbon emissions and more practical as customer needs, electric vehicle infrastructure and clean energy supplies vary by country.

(Reporting by Daniel Lusink) Editing by David Dolan and Christopher Cushing

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