DETROIT – Toyota Motor Shares closed on Friday with their best week since 2009 as the automaker unveiled a robust plan for future all-electric vehicles and Akio Toyoda became the leader of the Japanese company’s board.

Toyota shares closed at $164.35 a share on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday, down 2.3% for the day but still down 10.6% for the week. This 5-day gain is the stock’s best week since April 2009, when the stock rose 14.5%.

Such a rally is not typical for stocks. It’s only the third double-digit weekly gain in more than two decades for the relatively well-performing but mundane stock. The company’s stock is up 20% so far in 2023.

The positive rise this year comes as recent supply chain problems have eased for the auto industry, including Toyota, and after Toyoda, the grandson of the company’s founder, announced plans to transition from CEO to Chairman after more than 13 years of managing the car company.

Toyoda, who stepped down as CEO on April 1 to be succeeded by Koji Sato, has faced criticism from some environmental groups and investors. you can’t go all-in on EV and continued production of hybrids and plug-in hybrids such as the Prius and Prius Prime.

Toyota management while increasing investment in EVsthey argue that such cars and trucks are one solution, not the solution, to meeting tightening global emissions standards and achieving carbon neutrality.

To address skeptics about its strategy, the automaker offered a rare peek behind the curtain at its future plans this week in Japan.

“Management has rarely announced details of the technology being developed in the past, and we felt a commitment to ensure competitiveness through electrification and intellectualization under the new management team,” JPMorgan analyst Akira Kishimoto said in a note to investors this week.

Ahead of its annual meeting on Wednesday, Toyota outlined plans for a new generation of electric cars to rival industry leaders Tesla and China-based BYD. The company said it plans to launch its next-generation electric cars starting in 2026, including vehicles with highly touted “solid-state batteries” by 2027 or 2028.

Solid-state batteries can be lighter, more energy-dense, and provide more range at a lower cost than today’s electric cars that run on lithium-ion batteries.

Takero Kato, president of Toyota’s electric car factory, said Toyota is targeting a range of 1,000 kilometers, or 620 miles, for your EV. The plant aims to produce about 1.7 million vehicles by 2030, he said.

“The strategic focus on differentiation (in terms of technology and business model) rather than scale in 2025-30, and the company’s strong ability to develop technology for that purpose, are longer-term positives in our view,” UBS analyst Kohei Takahashi said on Tuesday. in the investor note.

Following those announcements, Toyota shareholders on Wednesday approved and rejected the company’s new management shareholder proposal demand that Toyota review its climate-related lobbying activities – voting in line with the company’s recommendations.

— CNBC Michael Bloom and Lim Hui Jie contributed to this report.