Vehicle sales in Japan plunged 37% year-on-year in March as the market reeled under the weight of the March 11 earthquake and its aftermath.
Vehicle sales totalled 279,389 in March, the seventh-straight monthly decline, according to the Japan Automobile Dealers Association (JADA). New minivehicle sales are also expected to show a big drop for March.
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The earthquake and tsunami has disrupted vehicle production in Japan, hit supplies to dealers and led to downgraded forecasts for Japan’s economy as it faces huge reconstruction costs, rolling power outages and a further loss of consumer confidence.
IHS Automotive’s Japanese light vehicle market forecast for 2011 has been revised down by 430,000 units to 4.3m units (the market reached just under 4.9m units in 2010). However, IHS analysts expect replacement demand in the second half of 2012 to lift the Japan light vehicle market over 4.8m units in 2012.
Industry sources cited by the Kyodo news agency said that March sales including minivehicles are expected to have fallen around 41% at Toyota and 35-40% at Nissan.
