Domestic sales of new vehicles in Japan plunged 27.9% year on year last month to 174,281 units, a record drop for a January, an industry body said on Monday.
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That was the sixth consecutive monthly decline in new automobile sales, excluding minivehicles with engines of up to 660 cc, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association, which began compiling the sales data in 1968, told Kyodo News.
Unit sales in January hit the lowest level for the month in 37 years, about half the peak of 325,468 cars sold in January 1990, the association said.
”The bottom has collapsed,” Takeshi Fushimi, the association’s director, told the news agency. ”(The downturn in) new vehicle sales became more serious.”
Passenger car sales slumped 28.0% to 153,950 vehicles for the sixth straight month of decline, while truck sales dropped 27.5% to 19,290 vehicles for the 28th consecutive month of falls. Bus sales slipped 11.0% to 1,041 units, the first drop in five months.
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By GlobalDataToyota Motor sold 81,985 units excluding its Lexus brand cars in January, down 22.5%.
Honda Motor sold 22,087 cars, down 30.7%, and Nissan Motor sold 30,786 units, down 31.1%.
Sales of minivehicles in Japan also continued to fall in January as consumers even shied away from smaller and cheaper cars, Kyodo’s report added.
Japan Mini Vehicles Association data showed sales fell 5.6% year on year to 127,426 units – the third consecutive monthly decline.
