Japanese EV market

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cwerdna

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I couldn't find a thread on the Japanese EV market. We can discuss it here.

In 2019, The Japanese Plug-In Electric Car Market Declined Again
https://insideevs.com/news/394406/2019-japan-plugin-car-sales/
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.

Remember, this is in a country with at least 7600 CHAdeMO chargers per https://www.chademo.com/ vs. 3900 in North America. IIRC, Japan is about 89% the land area of California.
 
LeftieBiker said:
What are the speculations on the reason(s)?
I didn't notice any.

I mentioned in a Tokyo Motor Show 2019 about the Mahle rep I spoke to. IIRC, he said the Japanese weren't willing to buy EVs due to price there. For him, he felt that in the short term (I'm guessing he's talking about next 3 to 5 years), his best bet there is on PHEVs and mild hybrids.

As I think I've mentioned before, it seems parking in Tokyo and big cities in Japan is hard enough to find as it is, let alone parking w/charging. If it's mechanical parking, forget about charging at all there.

I recall on one of my trips there where I went all the way from Nagasaki to Tokyo by train, I recall seeing some of the EVs in more rural/lower population dense areas (e.g. a Leaf in Beppu). I suppose those would be better candidates for an EV since they might have a home and an ability to charge.

I've seen stats like https://www.statista.com/statistics/270086/urbanization-in-japan/ about the % of people who live in "urban" areas but I'm not clear where you draw the line between urban vs. non-urban.
 
I guess that it's a magnification of the North American urban EV problem: people can't charge at home because they live in apartments, and in Japanese big cities parking is too dear to include free charging (or any charging) for most as well. I'm thinking that workplace charging isn't the Big Answer there either, because of the mass transit being used heavily. The only solution I can imagine is putting in multiple DCFC stations at every gasoline station...
 
I lived in Japan for 3 and a half years seems like the perfect place for electric vehicles.
They have public transportation all the way out to to the remote northern main land. So if you have to go from hachi (the northern tip) to Yokohama it would be easier to leave the car at home. Almost all the population is concentrated to with in 20 or 30 miles of the coast over most of the island. The interior is made up of extremely topographic volcanic terrain left by extinct volcanos, they can barely use it for logging.

In the big city charging may be more difficult due to the extreme density and extreme parking situation.
In practice if your city is too dense electrics or just cars in general are a bad choice, if stuff is too sparse like new Mexico electrics are not a good choice. It's almost like they belong in suburbia with smaller to medium cities very near by.
 
The 1st URL had some Japanese plug-in sales numbers.

I found https://www.best-selling-cars.com/japan/2019-full-year-japan-best-selling-car-models/. "Best-Selling Car Models in Japan in 2019 (Full Year)" seems to concur with http://www.jada.or.jp/data/month/m-brand-ranking/ if you run it thru Google Translate. That JADA list doesn't include mini cars nor overseas (to Japan) brands.

Nissan Note is the Versa Note in the US. Toyota Aqua is the Prius c in the US. I believe the Toyota Vitz is aka Yaris here. Interesting that the Honda Vezel is apparently the HR-V here. There sure seem to like their boxy vehicles there:
https://global.toyota/en/detail/14142579 about the Toyota Tank and Roomy
https://www.toyotarentacar.net/english/lineup/conpact/p2_12/
https://www.toyotarentacar.net/english/lineup/conpact/p2_11/

A lot of vehicles on the list seem to be minivans or mini-minivans (maybe not quite a microvan) like these kei vans: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microvan#Kei_microvans.

I also found https://insideevs.com/news/391926/2019-20000-nissan-leaf-sold-japan/ which mentions #38 most popular model, which corresponds with the JADA list.
 
This does explain - to some extent - the success of the Note serial plug-less hybrid, although I think that opportunity charging should be an option. I guess that's why the Prime is popular. I was also thinking along the lines of mechanical parking garages with central EVSE units and just shorter charging cables in the parking spaces...
 
LeftieBiker said:
I was also thinking along the lines of mechanical parking garages with central EVSE units and just shorter charging cables in the parking spaces...
I can't claim to be an authority on car elevators but there are many different types. I found http://www.japanretailnews.com/japan-retail-news---home/parking-systems-in-japan and https://web-japan.org/trends/11_tech-life/tec170223.html. You can see some more examples at https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=japanese+car+elevator.

Here's another https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKWLOptr3sU. Driver gets out of the car at around 2:10 and then she does something to activate the system.
 
Nissan LEAF Experienced A 73% Sales Drop In Japan In January 2020
https://insideevs.com/news/397448/nissan-leaf-sales-january-2020/
In January, LEAF sales in Japan were extraordinarily low - 753 units, which is 73% less than a year ago (2,833) and the lowest level for January ever.
...
On the North American front, Nissan released a short note that - as in the case of many other manufacturers, it - "is moving from monthly to quarterly sales reporting in the U.S. market".

It means that we will not be able to track the results more often than once a quarter.
 
There are virtually no parking spaces in Tokyo. There just isn't enough room. My nephew who has lived there for over ten years does not even own a car. His employer as well as his wife's employer pay for his Tokyo Rail pass. He saves money on a vehicle that is hard to use around Tokyo by not having to buy insurance, fuel and the vehicle itself. People in Japan are very conscious of waste and using too many resources.
There were many elderly people who died of overexposure to heat last year because they did not want to waste energy by turning on their air conditioners.
Car ownership has been on the decline since 1990 when 7.78 million vehicles were sold. Compared to 5.56 million sold in 2015. Obviously the bulk of these cars were sold in Tokyo. But in my experience there is much more traffic in Seattle, LA or the SF Bay Area.
Other than workman and delivery vehicles hardly anyone drives to work. I think all of these factors have a lot of relevance as to why electric vehicles are not sustaining sales in Japan. People (for the most part) do not have the option of charging at home and they are too busy to stop someplace and charge on the way to or from work. If my cousin ever needs a car he rents one.

Japan is a very unique place. Thanks for the topic.
 
Japan: Over 11,000 Nissan LEAFs Were Sold In 2020
https://insideevs.com/news/466194/japan-nissan-leaf-sales-december-2020/
Nissan Ariya to appear on the market in Japan in mid-2021.

Nissan LEAF is slowly fading in Japan, ahead of its expected upcoming extinction. In its home market, sales decreased in 11 out of 12 months of 2020, which resulted in a weak 2020.

With 11,285 sales in 2020 (down 43% year-over-year), LEAF is at the lowest level since 2015.
 
While parking and traffic are tight in Tokyo and I also just used a train when I was there when you are in many other places in Japan you need a car to get to where you want to go. They also rarely buy EVs in "rural" areas like Nagasaki prefecture we knew a few LEAF owners and I know where charging is but I just didn't see a lot. While I am in the US now we still have a Japanese TV service and I do see increasing commercials recently with celebrity kimtaku advertising the Ariya and LEAF, I also see Audi commercials. My hope is this has an influence. Various hybrids are popular. My wife (who is Japanese) is unusual in being a heavy driver, she would drive around a bay on the way home from work. She does like the LEAF though as dealing with gas and such is "dirty", would you think that would work but it does not. As Japan is around the size of California and most people do not road trip like we do I would think even the 40kwh LEAF would be perfect, when you go back to your family home for new years or obon take the train or use plentiful charging available or rent. My hope is as the west gradually shifts to electric Japan does as well albeit lagging the west. I have driven from Tokyo to Toyota city in Aichi, a plus could do that without any need for a charge on the way. Driving Tokyo to Osaka would just need one charge in a plus. Even in Tokyo metro some families choose a painful 2 hour train commute to have a house on the outskirts (my brother in law did this) but yea in your typical mansion you will have to use public charging. They had a good subscription plan back in the day.
 
Japan: Nissan LEAF Sales Cruise At Roughly 11,000 In 2021
https://insideevs.com/news/560255/japan-nissan-leaf-sales-2021/

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Automobiles/Global-EV-sales-overtake-hybrid-cars-for-first-time-in-2021 says "EV sales in Japan stood at around 20,000 units in 2021, highlighting relatively slow market expansion there."

https://www.marklines.com/en/statistics/flash_sales/automotive-sales-in-japan-by-month-2021 says 4.448 million automobiles were sold in Japan in 2021.
 
https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=627072#p627072 relates to the numbers below that I posted elsewhere.

Per page 17 of http://www.jama.or.jp/english/reports/docs/MIoJ2022_e.pdf, there were 21.6K new BEVs registered in Japan in 2021. This is out of 4.45 million new vehicles (see page 6).

For reference, https://www.jama.or.jp/library/publish/mioj/ebook/2021/MIoJ2021_e.pdf is the doc for the previous year.

Per https://www.chademo.com/globalcounts2022_h1, Japan has 7800 CHAdeMO chargers vs 8900 in North America.

I wouldn't be surprised if the above is partly responsible for Japanese automakers who aren't Nissan being relatively lukewarm or way behind when it comes to BEVs with management, so many employees and decision makers seeing that if you build it (charging infrastructure), they won't necessarily come. And, obviously, Nissan has squandered their lead to be decimated in EV sales worldwide by the likes of Tesla.

BTW, on page 17 of the above, it mentions for 2021 new registrations in Japan, 1.434 million vehicles were hybrids (the kind you can't plug in) and only another 22.6K were PHEVs. The (non-plugin) hybrids end up being about 32% of new automobile sales there.
 
cwerdna, your CHAdeMO map link is revealing. I tried to find a similar map for the CCS Combo without success. Have you seen any comparison?

The CHAdeMO / CCS Combo competition reminds me of the VHS / BetaMax cassette rivalry of years ago. BetaMax was technically superior but VHS dominated the market.

The writing is on the wall, CHAdeMO is on the way out in North America. Is this a "Not invented here" problem?
 
cwerdna said:
Per page 17 of http://www.jama.or.jp/english/reports/docs/MIoJ2022_e.pdf, there were 21.6K new BEVs registered in Japan in 2021. This is out of 4.45 million new vehicles (see page 6).

For reference, https://www.jama.or.jp/library/publish/mioj/ebook/2021/MIoJ2021_e.pdf is the doc for the previous year.

Per https://www.chademo.com/globalcounts2022_h1, Japan has 7800 CHAdeMO chargers vs 8900 in North America.

I wouldn't be surprised if the above is partly responsible for Japanese automakers who aren't Nissan being relatively lukewarm or way behind when it comes to BEVs with management, so many employees and decision makers seeing that if you build it (charging infrastructure), they won't necessarily come. And, obviously, Nissan has squandered their lead to be decimated in EV sales worldwide by the likes of Tesla.

BTW, on page 17 of the above, it mentions for 2021 new registrations in Japan, 1.434 million vehicles were hybrids (the kind you can't plug in) and only another 22.6K were PHEVs. The (non-plugin) hybrids end up being about 32% of new automobile sales there.
http://www.jama.or.jp/english/reports/docs/MIoJ2023_e.pdf is the report for 2023.

Per page 5, 4.2 million motor vehicles were sold in Japan in 2022. 3.448 million were passenger cars.
Per page 16, of those passenger cars, these were the # of new registrations in Japan of these types in 2022:
hybrid: 1.45 million
plug-in hybrid: 37.7K
BEV: 58.8K
FCEVs: 848
clean diesels: 140K
 
Interesting. I'm kind of surprised at the relatively low numbers of PHEVs and BEVs. So-called "clean diesels" outnumber BEVs and PHEVs combined :( and like here FCEVs are basically a pie-in-the-sky which I personally wish would just go away and quit distracting attention and money from other better alternatives to ICE vehicles.
Very high hybrid numbers though which like here is better than nothing, at least in my mind but I kinda wish more were PHEVs and would have at least a little(more than a couple of miles) EV-only range, at least 20 to 30 miles ideal conditions. I mean you'd never have to plug them in if you don't have access to a plug but if you got a chance, it's there. Hauling around an 8-10 Kw battery isn't really going to hurt and would still get better mpg than a straight ICE even if you never plugged it in. Of course it would add a small cost but percentage wise not that much.
 
I saw this piece last night on a recording on my TiVo. Was for the NHK World channel, might've been their Biz Stream show.
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/videos/20231220164310354/Basically, it also complains about broken charging infrastructure and they show CHAdeMO. They mentioned a case where a DC FC was broken for 2 years and still not fixed. Some providers were unwilling to fix and there have also been problems on parts being n/a.
 
I watched earlier today. It also gave some global and Japanese EV sales share figures. It's under 6.5 minutes long.
"BYD fine-tunes global EV strategy in JapanーNHK WORLD-JAPAN NEWS

16,048 views Jan 31, 2024 #china #ev
China's top EV maker is aiming to woo a nation of famously demanding drivers -- and dethrone Tesla on the world stage. #china #ev"
 
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