Toyota Motor has promoted a designer to head its Lexus luxury division.
Tokuo Fukuichi, 58, becomes president of Lexus international operations on 1 April, taking over from Kiyotaka Ise. Fukuichi was previously one of two global Lexus executive vice presidents reporting to Ise, 62, and will remain chief officer of the company’s design group, Bloomberg News reported.
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Lexus set a global sales record of more than 523,000 vehicles last year, topping a previous best of 518,300 set in 2007. About half of the brand’s worldwide deliveries were in the US where sales climbed 12% to 273,847.
Lexus aims to grow as much as 10% annually for the next 30 years as it expands in emerging markets including China, Vietnam, Brazil and Peru, Mark Templin, the second executive vice president for the luxury brand, told Bloomberg in a recent interview.
Templin, 53, has been a global executive vice president since April 2013, after having managed sales and marketing in the US.
Bloomberg said Ise has been the top executive at Lexus since Toyota reorganised its luxury division as an international unit in June 2012. He becomes chief officer of the R&D group.
