TOKYO: Sales of electric vehicles (EVs) are on the rise in Japan, with the figure for the first half of financial year 2026 (1H26) reaching 59,337 units \u2013 2.1 times the previous year\u2019s 1H figure \u2013 and accounting for a record-high share of about 3% of total passenger car sales, according to figures released on Monday by the Japan Automobile Dealers Association and other entities.<\/p>\n
While the launch of new models and government purchase subsidies have provided a tailwind, it remains unclear whether this momentum will last.<\/p>\n
The best-selling EV overall was Toyota Motor Corp\u2019s sport utility vehicle bZ4X with 13,777 units sold \u2013 nearly 70 times the previous year\u2019s figure.<\/p>\n
Second place among domestic carmakers went to Nissan Motor Co\u2019s main EV, LEAF, with 10,012 units.<\/p>\n
Among foreign manufacturers, United States-based Tesla Inc took the top spot, with sales estimated at 12,000 units.<\/p>\n
One factor behind the strong sales is improved performance resulting from the launch of new models and upgrades.<\/p>\n
Until now, Japanese EVs had relatively short driving ranges for their prices, making them seem inferior to their foreign counterparts.<\/p>\n
Toyota\u2019s bZ4X saw its range improve by about 30% following a partial upgrade in October last year, enabling it to travel up to 746km on a full charge.<\/p>\n
Nissan also launched a new model of LEAF with a popular sport utility vehicle-style design in January this year, which features an extended range.<\/p>\n
Policy support has also played a major role. In January this year, the government raised the maximum subsidy for EVs by 400,000 yen to 1.3 million yen.<\/p>\n
While the maximum subsidy for minicar EVs remained unchanged at 580,000 yen, many domestic models are receiving the full subsidy amount.<\/p>\n
One EV model benefiting from this subsidy system is Honda Motor Co\u2019s compact Super-One, launched in late May.<\/p>\n
Originally priced at about 3.39 million yen, including tax, it can be purchased for 2.09 million yen \u2013 on par with minicar EVs \u2013 when the subsidy is applied.<\/p>\n
Demand has been overwhelming, with some dealerships temporarily suspending acceptance of orders.<\/p>\n
Some local governments are also offering additional subsidies. \u2014 The Japan News\/ANN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TOKYO: Sales of electric vehicles (EVs) are on the rise in Japan, with the figure for the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[9409,36698,217,215,36697,36695,16439,214,36696,216,6329,4209,1273],"class_list":["post-55486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-auto","tag-autoindustry","tag-business","tag-business-of-japan","tag-cleanmobility","tag-electricvehicles","tag-evs","tag-japans-business","tag-japanauto","tag-japanese-business","tag-nissan","tag-tesla","tag-toyota"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}