Today, Toyota announced changes in executives’ areas of responsibility, as well as personnel changes at the sub-executive managerial level. The most important change by far is the appointment of Akio Toyoda, the company’s CEO and grandson of founder Kiichiro Toyoda, as President of a new ‘EV Business Planning’ department.

Earlier this month, we reported–admittedly a little tongue-in-cheek–about Toyota announcing the creation of an electric vehicle division and putting only 4 engineers on the project with the goal to bring EVs to market by 2020.

The move seems a lot more serious now that Akio Toyoda is leading the effort, and several other executives, managers, and engineers have been assigned new responsibilities in the electric vehicle planning department, including the chief engineer of the Prius.

At the executive level, the changes will be effective today, while the managers were apparently put on the program throughout the month. You can see the full list of changes below.

It appears to be a clear sign that Toyota is more serious than ever about electric vehicles and it is not simply investing in fuel cell hydrogen to comply to new fuel consumption standards.

Changes to executives’ areas of responsibility

(effective December 1, 2016)

Name Current New Akio Toyoda ― President EV Business Planning Dept. (chief officer) Mitsuhisa Kato Executive Vice President Frontier Research Center (chief officer) Executive Vice President Frontier Research Center (chief officer)

EV Business Planning Dept. (chief officer) Shigeki Terashi Executive Vice President Strategic Top Executive Meeting Office (secretary general)

Corporate Strategy Div. (chief officer)

Research Div. (chief officer) Executive Vice President Strategic Top Executive Meeting Office (secretary general)

EV Business Planning Dept. (chief officer)

Corporate Strategy Div. (chief officer)

Research Div. (chief officer) Koki Konishi Managing Officer Mid-size Vehicle Company (executive vice president) Managing Officer General Administration & Human Resources Group

Changes to executive general managers’ areas of responsibility

(effective November 1, 2016)

Name Current New Shinichi Yasui Mid-size Vehicle Company ZS (chief officer), ZV (chief officer), ZD (chief officer), ZE (chief officer), ZF (chief officer) Mid-size Vehicle Company ZS (chief officer), ZV (chief officer), ZD (chief officer), ZE (chief officer), ZF (chief officer, concurrent chief engineer)

Personnel changes at the sub-executive managerial level

(effective November 1, 2016)

Name Current New Kouji Toyoshima MSZ, Mid-size Vehicle Company (chief engineer) MSZ, Mid-size Vehicle Company (chief engineer)

EV Business Planning Dept. (preliminary organization) (general manager)

(effective November 14, 2016)

Name Current New Kenichi Komuro Temporary External Transfer from Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd. EV Business Planning Dept. (preliminary organization) (project general manager)

(effective December 1, 2016)

Name Current New Kouji Toyoshima MSZ, Mid-size Vehicle Company (chief engineer)

EV Business Planning Dept. (preliminary organization) (general manager) EV Business Planning Dept. (general manager, concurrent chief engineer) Kenichi Komuro EV Business Planning Dept. (preliminary organization) (project general manager) EV Business Planning Dept. (project general manager)

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.