Toyota is handing the car keys to its finance chief after a tough quarter, a leadership shake-up that lands just as the automaker is quietly bulking up its big truck operation on San Antonio’s South Side.
Kenta Kon, a veteran Toyota insider who has been serving as chief financial officer, is set to become president and CEO on April 1, with shareholders expected to sign off on the move in June. The timing comes right after Toyota reported a steep 43% slide in quarterly profit and in the middle of a multi-stage expansion at its San Antonio assembly campus, where workers build full-size Tundra pickups and Sequoia SUVs.
Leadership reshuffle
The company is splitting its top job in two, separating internal management from outward-facing industry work. Outgoing CEO Koji Sato will move into a newly created role as vice chairman and chief industry officer, focusing on external coordination, while Kon concentrates on running the company day to day. The new structure takes effect April 1 and will be formalized at Toyota’s annual shareholders meeting in June, according to Toyota.
Earnings that prompted the change
Kon’s promotion arrives after a rough quarter on the earnings front. For the October–December period, Toyota reported group net income of 1.25 trillion yen, down from 2.19 trillion yen a year earlier, a drop of about 43%. Net income for the first nine months of the fiscal year totaled roughly 3.03 trillion yen, according to AP.
Even with the setback, Toyota ticked its full-year profit outlook slightly higher, to 3.57 trillion yen, while warning that rising costs are still putting pressure on margins.
Tariffs and margin pressure
Company documents and executives point to rising materials prices and tariff-related charges as the main culprits behind the squeeze. Toyota’s latest earnings presentation shows that United States tariff and transactional costs cut about 1.45 trillion yen from operating profit last year. Pricing moves and cost-cutting efforts helped soften the blow but did not erase it, according to a company presentation from Toyota.
Local plant and jobs
In San Antonio, the leadership change is not expected to slow the company’s plans on the ground. Toyota’s South Side operation is a 2.2 million square foot complex that assembles the full-size Tundra and Sequoia and employs about 3,700 people, according to Toyota.
Local reporting by the San Antonio Express-News notes that the plant is currently hiring for a new rear-axle line as part of its expansion. The project is expected to add more than 400 jobs, and the axle operation is projected to be fully up and running by spring 2027. Once staffed, that would push Toyota’s total employment in San Antonio above 4,000.
Why Kon?
Inside Toyota, Kon is seen as a numbers-first operator who has led finance and cross-functional efforts, including work at Woven by Toyota and programs tied to automated driving. Elevating a finance chief is widely interpreted as a signal that the company wants to sharpen its focus on earning power and quicker decision-making as it faces trade headwinds and tougher electric-vehicle competition, reporting by Car and Driver notes.
What’s next
Investors did not bolt for the exits. Toyota’s Tokyo-listed shares rose about 2% following the leadership and earnings announcements, according to AP.
Executives say Sato will focus on industry coordination while Kon zeroes in on internal reforms. Markets will be watching whether the new split at the top speeds up decisions on costs, electric-vehicle investment and Toyota’s broader strategy, from its global factories to that growing truck hub in San Antonio.
