Japanese automakers are increasingly using hybrid technology to make their sedans more fuel efficient, aiming to revive shrinking demand for such vehicles.
Honda Motor has launched the Accord Hybrid midsize sedan that can travel 30km per litre of fuel and is therefore as fuel efficient as a minivehicle, Jiji News noted.
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The company enjoyed brisk minivehicle sales in fiscal 2012.
Honda president Takanobu Ito said: “We have something other than minivehicles. We want customers who prefer larger cars to enjoy the new sedan, equipped with our advanced energy saving technology.”
Sales of sedans have long been stagnant in Japan, dropping to 280,000 units in 2012 from 940,000 in 2000. Sedans are losing to lower cost minivehicles and roomy minivans which have attracted demand from families with children, an official at a major automaker told the news agency.
The Accord is no exception. Domestic sales of the model were 2,280 units in 2012 compared with the peak of 105,270 in 1990.
The Accord Hybrid, however, saw brisk orders. As of last Wednesday, two days before its debut, orders totalled 2,800 units, more than the company’s monthly sales target of 1,000 units.
“This is a promising start,” a senior Honda official said.
Meanwhile, Toyota launched last December a new hybrid version of its Crown luxury sedan, which has a mileage of 23.2km per litre, some 60% better than for the previous hybrid model.
Total sales of the Crown came to 38,300 units in the first five months of 2013, about twice as many as the target set by the company. Of those, hybrids accounted for 70%.
In 2012, 18% of new vehicles sold in Japan, including minivehicles, were hybrids, up sharply from 1.8% in 2007.
Nissan Motor, which is lagging behind Toyota and Honda in the hybrid vehicle market, plans to release 15 hybrid models by the end of March 2017. Mazda will launch a hybrid version of its Axela (3) compact, its first Japanese market hybrid model, this summer.
