Japan's new vehicle market continued to rebound in November, by 8.6% to 441,943 units from 406,860 units a year earlier, according to registration data released by the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association.
The recovery comes after a sluggish third quarter for the market when economic activity in the country was held back by a series of natural disasters. Revised GDP data shows the Japanese economy put in a flat performance year on year in the third quarter after expanding by 3% in the second quarter, and shrank by 0.6% quarter on quarter.
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The vehicle market in the first 11 months of the year was 0.9% higher at 4,884,542 units from 4,839,912 units in the same period of last year, reflecting mainly a 4.1% rise in truck sales to 800,569 units. Passenger vehicle sales were 0.4% higher at 4,071,490 units, while medium and heavy-duty bus sales were almost 15% lower at 12,483 units after strong growth in previous years.
Toyota was the main loser in the 11 month period with sales falling by 5.5% to 1,398,701 units while second placed Honda saw its volume rise by 3.3% to 693,440 units; Suzuki 663,113 units (+7.0%); Daihatsu 598,038 units (+2.4%); Nissan 579,145 units (4.7%); and Mazda 206,021 units (+6.4%).
