Sales of passenger electric vehicles (EVs) in Japan fell for a 12th straight month in October, mostly because of a drop in demand for domestic brands.
Sales totalled 4,325 units in October, down by 35.1pc from a year earlier, according to data from three industry groups — the Automobile Dealers Association, the Japan Light Motor Vehicle and Motorcycle Association and the Japan Automobile Importers Association (JAIA). Sales were down by 32.7pc on the previous month.
EVs accounted for just 1.3pc of Japan's total domestic passenger car sales last month, down by 0.7 percentage points from a year earlier.
The fall in EV sales was mostly the result of lower sales of Nissan's Sakura, one of the domestic producer's top selling EV models. Sakura sales slumped by 51.6pc on the year to 1,448 units.
Sales of foreign brand passenger EVs fell to 1,900 units, down by 4pc on the year. The decline largely reflected reduced supply by Germany's Volkswagen, a JAA representative told Argus. It remains unclear if the downtrend will continue given demand for imported EVs remains high in the Japanese market, the representative added. Imported EVs accounted for around 44pc of the country's total passenger EV sales in October.
Japan's largest car producer Toyota on 6 November revised its global EV sales outlook downwards to 160,000 units for the current fiscal year that ends 31 March 2025. This is 11,000 units lower from the initial plan announced in May, the company said.
