Japan December 2016

Prius PHEV: 2017 Best Seller?

Nissan Leaf Number One

In 2016, the Japanese EV was down for the second consecutive year, this time the drop was smaller, only 12% regarding 2015, with some 22.000 plug-ins being registered. Consequently, the EV Share was down to 0,42%. 

With such numbers, one has to go back five years to see such low numbers, with the coming arrival of the much anticipated Toyota Prius Prime, things are expected to change for the good in 2017 and even the 2014 record (32.418 units) can possibly be beaten, let's wait and see.

But not all was bad news in 2016, the Nissan Leaf has beaten its 2014 sales record by some 600 units, establishing also a new all-time record for any model in Japan, with this performance, the Nissan EV has won its Fourth Best Seller title in Japan, after those won in 2011, 2013 and 2014.

On the other hand, the other driving force for plug-ins in this market, the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, had by far its worst year ever, with only 5.459 units, half of what it usually registered.

The remaining models in the ranking have comparatively small numbers, with the top two models gobbling 90% of the market.

In the manufacturers ranking, it's another win for Nissan, its Third, after the 2011 and 2014 titles, having one trophy less than Mitsubishi (2009, '10, '13 and '15).

Will Nissan win its fourth this year? If i had to bet, i would say "No", as Toyota seems focused to recover with the new Prius the scepter won in 2012.

Pl	Japan	Dec.	2016	%	Pl '15
1	Nissan Leaf	1.232	14.793	66	2
2	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	500	5.459	24	1
3	Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia e)	75	957	4	7
4	BMW i3 e)	45	315	1	4
5	Mitsubishi Minicab Miev	16	200	1	5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14	Tesla Model S e) Toyota Prius Plug-In Mitsubishi I-Miev Mit. Minicab Miev Truck BMW i8 e) Smart Fortwo ED BMW 330e e) Audi A3 e-Tron e) Honda Accord PHEV	15 2	198 160 158 66 30 22 10 5 2	1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0	6 3 8 9 10 N/A N/A N/A
	TOTAL	1.885	22.375	100

e) Estimate