In 2019, The Japanese Plug-In Electric Car Market Declined Again

The Japanese plug-in electric car market is in a disappointing stage. After a 7% decrease in 2018, in 2019 sales decreased by another 17% year-over-year to 43,867.

The market share was just 0.8% (compared to 1.0% in 2018, and 1.1% in 2017), which is very low compared to many other countries.

With all the CHAdeMO fast-charging and the island-type of country, we would expect that Japan, an oil importer, would be a leading plug-in car market.

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Plug-in electric car sales in Japan - 2019

Top three models (all noted sales decline):

• Nissan LEAF: 19,789
• Toyota Prius Prime: 9,569
• Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV: 5,286

Interestingly, the EV Sales Blog points out that hydrogen fuel cell cars had only 673 sales (down 2% year-over-year) and 0.01% market share!

It was the third consecutive year of decline, which makes us wonder whether Toyota - a long time FCV supporter - also knows those numbers? As far as we remember, in 2015 Toyota was targeting to produce and sell at least 30,000 units annually around 2020. FCVs are in retreat also in the U.S.

Source: EV Sales Blog