Japan’s top five carmakers have reported year on year falls in global production and exports for August, although four posted increased domestic sales from a year earlier.
Among the five, Mitsubishi Motors recorded the sharpest global production drop of 32.1% to 62,924 units. Global output also fell 16.6% to 246,403 units at Honda, 13.7% to 217,954 units at Nissan Motor, 12.8% to 84,823 units at Mazda and 9.9% to 566,262 units at the Toyota group which includes Hino and Daihatsu.
Mitsubishi also reported the sharpest export decline of 66.8%, followed by Honda, down 60.7%, a 40.2% drop at Toyota group, a 36.3% fall at Nissan, and a 31.5% decline at Mazda, Kyodo News reported.
However on domestic sales, Mitsubishi was up 15%, its first increase in two years, the Toyota group recorded 4.5% growth, its first rise in 13 months, and Honda was up 4.2%, rising for the second consecutive month. Including minivehicles, Nissan booked an increase of 0.8%.
Mazda logged a 3.4% decrease in domestic sales but the margin of decline narrowed from 14.3% in July.
