He has been promoted just as Mazda begins its move into electrification and will move to the position in June, pending shareholder approval.

Mr Moro was chairman of Mazda Motor of America before becoming head of the company’s administrative division in 2021. He succeeds Akira Marumoto who has served as president and CEO since 2018.

Mr Marumoto (65) will become a senior advisor. Kiyotaka Shobuda will remain as chairman.

Mr Moro was promoted partly for his success at reforming the US dealer network and for rebuilding the profitability of Mazda in the US market.

In an interview with Automotive News, Mr Moro said boosting sales per outlet in the US was a key target in Mazda’s most important market and that the arrival of two new large-size crossovers will power a US sales surge.

Mr Moro (62) is fluent in English and comfortable in international circles. He joined Mazda in 1983, when the company was still called Toyo Kogyo Co.

He worked in the company’s global marketing operations and was head of Mazda in Europe from 2004 to 2008. Mr Moro became president and CEO of Mazda Motor of America in 2016.

Masahiro Moro

Mr Moro’s appointment is the latest within Japan’s group of Toyota-affiliated automakers.

In January, Toyota announced Koji Sato will succeed Akio Toyoda as CEO from April 1, and earlier this month, Subaru said Atsushi Osaki will succeed Tomomi Nakamura in June. Toyota has a 20 per cent stake in Subaru and a five per cent stake in Mazda.

Subaru and Mazda regularly change CEOs on a cadence of roughly five years.

Mazda’s management shuffle also saw the promotion of current North America boss Jeffrey Guyton (56) to become Mazda’s global finance chief and a member of the parent company’s board.

Mr Guyton will be based in Hiroshima. He will keep his role as head of North American operations while adding responsibility for cost innovation and adding the title ‘assistant to the president.’

Mr Guyton’s new role is intended to inject fresh perspective into the export-dependent Japanese automaker, which gets 86 per cent of its sales from outside Japan and 36 per cent from North America.

“We want to bring fresh eyes to the company,” said Mr Moro at the news conference.

Mr Moro said he will pursue two priorities.

“One is to successfully roll out large products, which will be a major growth driver for putting the company on a growth trajectory,” he said.

“The second is to implement company-wide cost reduction activities, including all supply chains and value chains, in order to further improve management efficiency going forward, so as to make our overall business more robust.”

The management changes represent a strengthened focus on North America for Mazda, as it rolls out new crossovers and steps up its play in electrified vehicles.

Mazda said in November it will invest ¥‎1.5 trillion ($A17b) into electrification through 2030 with a string of new partnerships targeting everything from batteries and motors to computer chips in an attempt to catch up in the global race for new technologies.

The investment could include EV production in the US as early as 2026-2027, the second phase of the company’s just-updated mid-term business plan.

Mazda expects EVs to make up between 25 and 40 per cent of its global sales in 2030.

By Neil Dowling