Japanese
car makers are in an aggressive end-of-year battle to win the sales race for
fiscal year 2000, which ends on March 31.
By the end of February, annual sales for the industry overall had increased
by 3.8 percent but, for some individual manufacturers, a boost over last year
looks like an uphill battle.
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Honda has set a sales target of 770,000 vehicles and the figure, excluding
subcompacts, has so far reached 421,103, up 17.3 percent, while subcompact sales
reached 262,918, up four percent. Strong sales of the Stream, Stepwagon and
Odyssey contributed to the increases.
Toyota has also increased sales to 1,540,089 vehicles, up 6.5 percent, while
Nissan’s sales are down 4.4 percent to 620,000 although dealer profits are expected
to increase for fiscal 2000.
Mazda sales also decreased 4.2 percent to 267,038 by the end of February but
if the company achieves its March sales target, annual sales could possibly
reach the planned 310,800.
Subaru maker Fuji Heavy Industries is trying to reach the previous year’s sales
figure after failing to achieve the projected annual target by 0.5 percent by
the end of February. For subcompacts, sales are expected to reach 1,850,000.
Suzuki, whose sales were 2.5 percent down at the end of February, is targeting
10,000 sales in March in order to match last year’s sales.
Daihatsu hopes to exceed its fiscal 1999 sales figure after recording a 4.5
percent increase to the end of February.
In the truck sector, Hino and Isuzu sales are expected to reach the same level
as in the previous year.
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