HONDA Malaysia Sdn Bhd has announced that Toichi Ishiyama will assume the role of managing director and chief executive officer from Nov 1.
Ishiyama, 48, is currently the president and chief executive officer of Honda Atlas Cars (Pakistan) Ltd. He has spent 25 years with Honda in various roles in Japan, the United States, Thailand, China and Pakistan.
During his assignments in Thailand and China, Ishiyama delved deep into understanding local markets in relation to automobile.
With more than 20 years of experience in researching markets and product planning, Ishiyama’s forte is an advantage towards ensuring that Honda Malaysia continues its strong momentum as the No. 1 Non-National Vehicle Brand and No. 2 in overall Total Industry Volume (TIV).
Ishiyama has indicated that he will continue to focus on total excellence in products and customer experience to emphasise the Joy of Buying for Malaysians. He will be succeeding Katsuto Hayashi.
“The strategy put in place by Hayashi will see Honda Malaysia through to another achievement year, reaching the target of 100,000 units in sales for this year,” said Ishiyama in a statement.
During Hayashi’s tenure in Malaysia, he strengthened Honda Malaysia’s position as the No. 1 in Non-National segment and No. 2 in overall TIV and in the process, also attained No. 1 position in terms of market share among Honda automobile operations worldwide in some of those months.
The company achieved the highest local market share in history in March this year, at 20.5 per cent. Honda Malaysia recorded 100,000 sales units in the fiscal year of April 2016 to March 2017, and celebrated its historical 600,000th production unit under Hayashi’s watch.
Preparing Honda Malaysia for the next growth phase, Hayashi strategically switched focus to offer more advanced technologies to customers. Under the theme of Next Generation Advanced Technology, turbocharged engine was introduced last year.
Hayashi was praised for the success of the Civic with turbocharged engine variant as an option for Malaysians. Civic was the pioneer mass production Japanese model in Malaysia to be fitted with turbocharged engine to suit local demand.
This focus was further expanded with the launch of Sport Hybrid i-DCD variants, making Malaysia the only country outside of Japan to introduce the highly accepted environmental-friendly powertrain that does not compromise the fun-to-drive element of the car.
To date, Honda Malaysia is the leader of hybrid segment in Malaysia. Honda Malaysia also introduced the All-New CR-V with Honda Sensing to offer a new level of advanced safety.
The soon-to-be launched Civic Type R 2.0L VTEC Turbocharged, which has been recorded as the fastest front-wheel drive production car, is set to exhilarate customers who demand the thrill and fun of the throttle in their drive.
Hayashi has steered Honda Malaysia’s launch of five new models and expansion by four new dealers to a total of 90 Honda dealers nationwide. Hayashi, who led Honda Malaysia for one and a half years, will be taking on a new role as the general manager, overseas operation division (America), regional operation (North America) in Honda Motor Co Ltd in Japan.