Japan becomes world's largest market for hybrids in June
2010 Toyota Prius - Click above for high-res image gallery
Hybrid sales are taking off in Japan due to a perfect storm of newly available vehicles – namely the latest Toyota Prius and Honda Insight – and government-sponsored incentives. In Japan, gas is currently selling for about $4.50 a gallon, partly due to high fuel taxes in that country. In addition, the Japanese government has decreed that hybrid cars are exempt from taxes. Combine all of these factors and you end up with a seven-month waiting list for the new 2010 Toyota Prius.
In total, Toyota sold an impressive 22,292 Prius hybrids and Honda sold 8,782 Insights in Japan in the month of June, meaning that those two vehicles alone accounted for more sales than America's entire hybrid tally of 26,205 vehicles sold last month. Further breaking down the numbers reveals that one in every eight new cars sold in Japan is a hybrid, compared to one in three here in the United States.
Gallery: 2010 Toyota Prius
[Source: Hybrid Cars]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
John 7:40PM (7/07/2009)
There must be a mistake: "Further breaking down the numbers reveals that one in every eight new cars sold in Japan is a hybrid, compared to one in three here in the United States."
1/3 of new cars sold in the USA is a hybrid??? 33%? Someone probably inverted the figures.....
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AndrewNoNumbers 8:08PM (7/07/2009)
Even if you uninverted the figures it still wouldn't be right. 1/8 hybrids in the US is still too high and same with 1/3 hybrids in Japan.
Nick 9:18PM (7/07/2009)
3%, not 1 in 3.
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peteA. 9:19AM (7/08/2009)
Perhaps they left off a zero. "1/8 new cars in Japan is a hybrid, 1/30 new cars in U.S. is a hybrid." That sounds a little more plausible.
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Serge 9:39AM (7/08/2009)
Guys, no need to guess, just check the linked article:
"US hybrid sales were up in June for the sixth consecutive month, exceeding 3 percent of the new car market. With the Japanese overall annual car market forecast at just below 5 million vehicles, this month’s tally of more than 30,000 hybrid sales means that approximately 8 percent of new car sales in Japan were hybrids in June."
For the "math challenged", this means 3 of every 100 cars sold in the U.S. is a hybrid; every 8 of 100 or 2 of 25 for Japan.
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Sebastien 11:42AM (7/08/2009)
Is it or are the articles becoming more and more riddled with errors ?
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Serge 12:28PM (7/08/2009)
It's not just you.
Sebastien 12:31PM (7/08/2009)
I seem not to be much better since I made a "typo" when I posted that comment but I think you get the point.
Rick 4:46PM (7/09/2009)
Japan is the size of what, Florida and California? You can't seriously compare Japanese drivers to rural drivers in the states when we are 5 times the size and live, and possibly drive, a lot farther from work then they do.
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The Ape 12:12PM (7/13/2009)
The only way to get the toothless yahoos to dump their trucks, or the fat soccer-moms out of their 8-seater SUVs, is to tax gas a bit more.
Virtually everywhere in the world, gas is closer to $5-$6 per gallon. It is only in the US, and a few Third World oil-exporting countries, that gas is so cheap. And here we effectively subsidize it, with tax holidays and tax breaks for the oil companies.
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