Market leader still mum as saga takes another turn.

MANAGEMENT disturbance for the country’s most powerful motoring brand is still under the spotlight.

Toyota New Zealand continues to be close-lipped to the ongoing status of chief executive officer Neeraj Lala.

This in wake of a fresh turn, the NZ Companies’ Office register showing the dynamic industry figure ceased as a director of the market-dominant national operation on June 30.

That change in respect to Toyota New Zealand Limited occurred three calendar days after Lala began what the brand says is personal leave, for an undefined period.

Comment has been sought from Lala (below) and TNZ head office was asked if it could provide more clarity.

In response, a TNZ spokesperson from Palmerston North head office said: “We do not have any further comment other than what has already been communicated.”

The spokesperson then repeated a statement shared to MotoringNZ on July 1. 

It reads: “As of June 27 Neeraj Lala is taking a personal leave of absence from his duties as CEO of Toyota New Zealand. 

“While Neeraj is on leave, Tatsuya Ishikawa will assume the role of acting CEO.”

Prior to Ishikawa, all CEOs have been New Zealanders. The register also shows the Japanese national, who resides in Auckland, became a TNZ director on July 1. TNZ today provided the image above for this story.

Lala also involves with the factory distributor in Australia, on the executive management committee.

In response to questioning, the make there on Friday said Lala is on “personal leave of absence from his Toyota Australia executive duties.”

A spokesperson from the operation’s head office in Port Melbourne commented that: “ Mr Lala is not a board director of Toyota Motor Corporation Australia, however, is a member of our executive management committee.”

It asked for further queries to be directed to Nikki Wright, managing director of Wright Communications, a common conduit for TNZ news and comment. 

The register shows Lala remains a director of Toyota Finance, an umbrella brand that markets financial services.

Toyota has been the new car and light commercial market sales leader for 35 years straight and Lala became CEO in July of 2020.

Since then he has become a high-profile industry identity, mainly through eagerness to publicly offer firm and at times controversial opinions on the future of motoring.

He has particularly pinned the brand’s colours to the mast in terms of a sustainability ambition.

In historically holding as much as 30 percent of the car and light vehicle (including utilities) market, TNZ commands a substantially larger share of the pie than any other car brand here. 

Its volume has increasingly relied on mainly mild hybrid cars which have battery-fed involvement but stand outside the electric sphere by not being plug-configured.

Like many distributors, it has seen its annual volume recede, though it has also had ups as well. 

June of 2023, for instance, was the highest sales month in the marque’s NZ history with 5403 vehicles sold across Toyota and Lexus.

 That flood occurred with buyers taking last-chance opportunity to secure vehicles that were losing Clean Car rebates, some also attracting penalties, from July 1.

In respect to environmental aspiration, TNZ has taken leadership, with commitment to reducing tailpipe emissions from its portfolio by 46 percent by 2030. It still appears on track.

That programme has required model availability refinements, with restriction of some popular types - notably its Hilux ute and heavier-duty Land Cruiser off-roaders, all of which are diesels and high CO2 emitters.

Unrestrained supply has potential to challenge commitment to meet Clean Car, established by the previous Government and now being radically altered by the current National-led coalition.

This year has been especially tough for the new vehicle industry; though a per Lala prediction Toyota and Lexus hybrids have proven stronger sellers than more radical electric considerations.

Lala was reported by media attending last month’s National Fieldays that despite the noise in the market about dealers going out of business, he didn’t see a threat to Toyota franchises. 

Toyota stores were considerably up in profit to the first quarter, sales were going exceptionally well, particularly of hybrids. 

Toyota had grown its market share to just under 24 percent year to date and that was without a considerable amount of delivery to rental fleets, which TNZ pulled back from for a while but are again a consideration.

According to an industry website, he appear to express thought more could be done to leverage technologies, reportedly saying “I think the quality of product e-learning and our sales teams is poor. We’ve addressed it with our chief executives, and we’ve said it is unacceptable.” 

Lala became TNZ’s CEO at age 45 and is the fifth person in that role, succeeding Alistair Davis, who retired.

His enthusiasm for adoption of hydrogen as an energy source and consistent view that hybrids are often being a better match to national motoring needs than full electrics has riled EV advocates. The latter view has nonetheless proven prescient.

TNZ was recently named among NZ’s most trusted brands by Reader’s Digest for the 18th year in a row, one of only a handful of non-New Zealand companies to make the top 10.

In February Lala was announced as co-chair of the Business New Zealand Major Companies Group, which comprises more than 130 of the country's largest companies. Its objective is to provide strong counsel to the Government and other key decision-makers by ensuring business has a strong advocacy voice in policy, business and economic debate.

He has other governance roles, being on the Sustainable Business Council NZ’s Advisory Board and being part of the steering committee for the Climate Leader’s Coalition. He is on the board of Kinto New Zealand and is vice president of the council for the Motor Industry Association, the representative body for all new vehicle distributors.

The only son of parents who emigrated from India to a new life in Wellington, Lala came to TNZ in 1998, initially in IT but rapidly moving through a variety of positions, ultimately being groomed to succeed Davis.

As part of the handover, the married father of three completed an MBA at Massey University and then joined Toyota’s leadership programme in Japan. 

After that, he spent three years in North America then made the move back to NZ to take up the role of executive general manager in 2018, rising to chief operating officer before taking the top spot.