Japanese New Car Sales Plummet 51 Percent In April

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

As predicted a month ago, the full brunt of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami hit Japan’s auto industry in April. Sales of new cars, trucks and buses crashed 51 percent from April a year earlier. Most of Japan’s auto industry was closed in the first half of April and operated at reduced capacity in the second half of the month.

According to data by the Japan Automobile Dealers Association (JADA), April sales dropped to 108,824 vehicles in April (excluding minivehicles and trucks), from 222,095 units in April 2010.

AprilPrev YearChangeDaihatsu47546-91.4%Hino1,1661,643-29.0%Honda18,92336,710-48.5%Isuzu1,7092,603-34.3%Lexus1,6562,996-44.7%Mazda6,59810,784-38.8%Mitsubishi3,5154,398-20.1%Mitsu-Fusou1,2811,475-13.2%Nissan17,41327,728-37.2%Subaru3,8063,36413.1%Suzuki4,2884,752-9.8%Toyota35,557113,644-68.7%UD Trucks291695-58.1%Others12,57410,75716.9%Total108,824 222,095 -51.0%

We will publish data on the impact on Japanese production when the data become available.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Acubra Acubra on May 02, 2011

    It is interesting how Subaru manages to grow when everybody else goes down. Same was happening during the worst periods of recession over here.

    • SVX pearlie SVX pearlie on May 02, 2011

      Yup, tho I bet they don't pull it off next month - FHI factories have been down a while.

  • Hemidakota Hemidakota on May 02, 2011

    Look Japan Automotive manufacturers and suppliers, now is a good time to correct some quality control issues that for the last few years has now embarrassed a few automotive brands from Japan. In other words, stop worry about sales and correct the problem.

  • Secret Hi5 Secret Hi5 on May 02, 2011

    Will the disaster result in even more production moving out of Japan into "developing" Asian countries? I recall reading something about that trend already happening in the last few years.

  • Dimwit Dimwit on May 02, 2011

    I wonder how many built but unshipped units were destroyed? Where will that show in the numbers?

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