Japan’s car sales suffer biggest drop since 2011

New-car sales in Japan tumbled 11.5 per cent in 2020 from a year earlier for the largest fall in nine years, according to industry organisations.

There were 4,598,615 new cars sold last year, including minivehicles with engines of up to 660cc, as businesses took a hit from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Figures from the Japan Automobile Dealers Association (JADA) and the Japan Mini Vehicles Association show the decline is the biggest since 2011, when auto sales tumbled 15.1 per cent to about 4,210,000 vehicles. 

While the coronavirus crisis hurt business in 2020, nine years ago Japan’s economy was reeling in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, which disrupted supply chains.

New-car trade, excluding minivehicles, fell 12.3 per cent last year to 2,880,527 units, reports the Japan Times. 

In the minicar sector, a total of 1,718,088 vehicles were sold, down 10.1 per cent from the tally in 2019.

Market leader Toyota sold 1,423,151 new vehicles in Japan, a drop of 5.8 per cent from the previous year.

Most other carmakers saw double-digit declines with the worst hit being Mitsubishi, which suffered a 41.3 per cent slump, and Nissan, where annual figures fell by 27.5 per cent.

Daihatsu bucked the trend and registered a 28.5 per cent increase in sales over the course of the year.

The automotive industry, along with most other parts of the Japanese economy, suffered when the country was placed under a state of emergency in April 2020 in a bid to contain the spread of Covid-19.

However, there were positive signs by the end of the year with December figures from JADA showing a 7.4 per cent increase in sales compared to the same period of 2019.

There were 243,753 new vehicles sold in December 2020, compared to 226,951 a year earlier.