Japan Passenger Car Sales : Jan-July 2024

Scandals don't go down well in Japan. The culture is about face and losing it brings shame. Open apology and remorse mitigates some of the lost face but not all of it. That's how I see things but I'm not an expert in Japanese culture.

Daihatsu has recently been exposed for fraudulent vehicle testing. Production was halted for months as a result as the sales data below clearly shows. Toyota is the owner of Daihatsu and they haven't been immune to the fallout with claims against falsified safety testing. Mazda obtains cars from them and may have been affected but less than the other two mentioned.

The Daihatsu Tanto Fun Cross (on the right) sums things up rather well. No fun for the company and no doubt has made the parent company Toyota very cross. It could be a while before Daihatsu is out of the woods over this scandal.

The data below compares seven months of market share for 2024 with a complete 2023. Toyota sales were down 8% Daihatsu is much worse, of course with a 58% reduction in market share. Mazda is down 17%.

This has enabled other Japanese brands unaffected by the scandal to improve their situation markedly. As the year progresses, things may gradually return closer to what they were before but the damage already wreaked will not be fully erased this year and perhaps beyond.  

In summary, YTD the numbers are -10% with import brands -9% so much the same. Toyota's loss has been to the benefit of other local brands, not imports (as expected), the latter are mainly premium marques so not competing against Toyota.  

Data source: JAMA, JAIA.