Akio Toyoda, the new chief executive of Toyota Motor, on Thursday pledged to bring a looser, more nimble management style to the carmaker, which is facing its biggest crisis since Sakichi Toyoda – his grandfather and Toyota’s founder – ran the company six decades ago.

Mr Toyoda promised “to do everything possible” to return the group to profit in 2010-2011, although “difficult conditions” would persist for the next two years. Toyota made a net loss of Y437bn ($4.6bn) last year and has forecast a bigger deficit this year.