Japan's new vehicle market continued to expand strongly in April, by 9.2% year on year to 354,750 units from 324,747 sales a year earlier, according to registration data released by the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association.
The market expanded by 7.7% to 1,932,499 units in the first four months of 2017 compared with 1,794,851 units in the same period of last year, driven by a strong rebound in passenger vehicle sales.
Passenger vehicle sales increased by 8.3% to 1,637,797 units in the four month period on particularly strong demand for compact and subcompact models. Truck sales increased by 4.5% to 288,399 units while bus sales were 3.7% higher at 6,303 units after exceptionally strong growth last year.
Toyota enjoyed an 11.8% sales rise to 574,127 units in the four month period with Honda following in second place with a 2.7% increase to 267,568 units. Nissan's sales amounted to 249,740 units (+15.9%); Suzuki 249,621 units (+8.3%); Daihatsu 222,511 units (+2.2%); and Mazda 82,239 units (+1.4%).
