According to Japan Automobile Dealers Association (JADA), Toyota Motor’s Prius was topmost selling car in Japan in 2009. For the first time in the history of top selling cars any hybrid car has secured that top position. Toyota Prius sold about 208,876 cars in 2009, which is thrice the number of Prius cars sold in the earlier year. Toyota dominated Japanese car market by producing 8 of the top 10 best selling models last year. Toyota Prius is also the best-selling gas-electric hybrid in the world and has sold about 1.6 million vehicles so far.
The world’s biggest automaker – Toyota rolled out a revamped, fuel-efficient and cheaper model with the capacity of about 38 kilometers per litre in May 2009. Since then, Toyota Prius has been Japan’s top selling vehicle. Success of Toyota Prius in Japan emphasizes the growing consumer acceptance of green cars. As the numbers speak for it, the Prius exemplifies the ideal package people in Japan are looking for whether that is in terms of driving, environmental or performance.
The sale of hybrid vehicles in Japan has increased due to the incentives and tax breaks offered by Japanese government to the buyers of green vehicles. This has also helped Japanese automakers like Toyota to improve their hybrid sales figures.
To avoid competition, the Japanese automaker – Toyota have kept the price of Toyota Prius very low like the starting price of basic U.S. model is $21,000 and starting price of Prius is $22,000 which is same as last year’s base price of same model . In Japan, the price of Toyota Prius starts at 2.05 million yen, or about $22,000.
After Toyota Prius, the second position was occupied by Honda’s fit which is non-hybrid car and sold around 157,324 cars. The other competitor of Toyota – Nissan is busy with preparation of its own all electric which will be launched by the end of 2010.
Toyota’s success has proved that hybrid cars are not just fancy concept cars people used to watch at the auto shows, but they are now affordable and practical cars for today’s world. The success of Prius has given a new dimension to Japanese automakers. Though the Japan’s auto market has been sluggish for many decades but the benefit from hybrid sales is a bright spot in the middle of overall gloomy demand.
Battered by the global economic downturn last year, Japanese automakers hope that the popularity of fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles will re-energize the deteriorating auto market. Even then hybrids have to face competition from pure electric vehicles like mini-electric car i-MiEV manufactured by Mitsubishi Motors, Subaru Plug-in STELLA manufactured by Fuji Heavy Industries etc
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