Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda leaves office in April and is about to start a new chapter in electric vehicles.

CTOnews.com, January 27 (Xinhua)-- Akio Toyoda, the grandson of Toyota's founder and currently Toyota's chief executive, announced that he would leave office on April 1 this year and be replaced by Hiroshi Sato, head of Lexus.

Toyota said that with the departure of Akio Toyoda, the company may have the opportunity to turn a new page and move in a new direction. It is reported that Toyota is developing a new pure electric vehicle platform to improve the competitiveness and efficiency of its electric vehicles and reduce production costs.

The decision is part of Toyota's plan to start mass production of electric vehicles, as the company expects consumer demand for electric vehicles to increase rapidly in the face of a sharp rise in oil prices. Toyota's new strategy aims to compete directly with Tesla, an industry leader in electric vehicles, the Asahi Shimbun said, marking a major shift in the company's electrification strategy, just as Toyota announced a major administrative reshuffle of its management chain of command.

The announcement had few details, but it caused a sensation as soon as it was released. Many executives praised Mr Toyoda for his dedication to his work and wished him all the best when he left in April, but the future of the brand remains uncertain.

In fact, Toyota's first pure electricity production model, bZ4X, uses its TNGA modular ICE platform and has not developed a new pure electric vehicle architecture.

CTOnews.com has reported that Toyota initially planned to use the e-TNGA platform for other pure electric models, but now seems to have changed its mind because it will make Toyota electric cars more expensive than Tesla.

According to the Asahi Shimbun, Toyota internally believes that if it continues to use the e-TNGA platform, it will not be able to generate substantial profits from electric vehicles and compete with Tesla-so it decided to design a dedicated architecture for electric vehicles from scratch.

Toyota recalls 2700 pure electric SUV bZ4X vehicles globally after the suspension of listing in China: there is a risk of wheel loss.