Japan Sales 2019 (Without Kei Car)

I've talked about the kei car situation in Japan and how after sales peaked in 2014, the government reduced benefits for this class. This caused a modest drop in the class so Japanese manufacturers that depend on them have started to broaden their range into the regular class of car. Their is still much work for some of them to do if dependence on kei cars is to be lessened.

Below is a chart of 2019 sales of the top twelve selling brands without kei car registrations included. The colums with a 'T' represent what the total market is and 'K' without kei sales. For example Suzuki was 3rd ranked for total sales but drops to 5th when the kei category is removed. Its share likewise drops, from 12.9% to 4.3%.

From this we see that as Toyota doesn't do much with kei cars, without them in the equation it's share jumps to 47%. Mazda, Subaru and Lexus also fare much better. They are shaded in a green colour. Yellow represents those disadvantaged, with Suzuki, Mitsubishi and Daihatsu the more so. Import brands have three to add perspective (shaded pale blue). They all obviously improved in their share.

This helps us to understand why brands like Suzuki and Daihatsu do so well in Japan. It also reminds us of the esteem Toyota has in the country. They take nearly half of regular car sales. In addition, as Toyota doesn't sell premium cars under its brand name, so by taking premium sales away from the list leaves Toyota with 52% of mainstream car sales! As Toyota is going to make changes to how it sells cars through its four outlet chains, it will be interesting to see if and what affect that will have on its share.

		T	K	Brand	2019	K	T
		1	1	Toyota	1,329,069	47.1%	31.5%
		2	2	Honda	357,252	12.7%	15.4%
		5	3	Nissan	304,862	10.8%	10.9%
		6	4	Mazda	152,428	5.4%	4.2%
		3	5	Suzuki	122,028	4.3%	12.9%
		7	6	Subaru	105,075	3.7%	2.8%
		9	7	Mercedes	66,524	2.4%	1.5%
		10	8	Lexus	62,394	2.2%	1.5%
		11	9	BMW	47,023	1.7%	1.1%
		12	10	VW	46,791	1.7%	1.1%
		8	11	Mitsubishi	46,474	1.6%	2.1%
		4	12	Daihatsu	43,609	1.5%	11.8%