Japan Kei Cars November 2011: Daihatsu Mira confirms supremacy
Daihatsu Mira E:S
* See the Top 20 best-selling models by clicking on the title! *
Boosted by the new E:S version, the Daihatsu Mira confirms its newly acquired pole position in the Kei car ranking, even improving on an already outstanding October to 20,052 sales, up a massive 284% on November 2010. It stays #4 year-to-date though at 102,411 units, now up 10%. The Suzuki Wagon R, 2011 leader, is back up to #2 with 14,885 sales, up 16%, with its YTD total adding up to 146,486 units, down 19%.
The Daihatsu Move rounds up the podium, up 48% year-on-year to 11,325 sales. It is #2 YTD at 135,054 units, up 12%. The Daihatsu Tanto is down 2 spots to #4 and 8,269 sales. Notice also the Nissan Moco up to #6 and +75% on November 2010, the Suzuki MR Wagon up 249% year-on-year at #11 and the new Toyota Pixis Space already down one spot to #13 but up to 2,059 sales.
Previous month: Japan Kei Cars October 2011: Daihatsu Mira takes off
Full November 2011 Top 20 Ranking Table below.
Japan Kei Cars November 2011:
| Pos | Model | Nov | /10 | Oct | 2011 | /10 | Pos | 2010 |
| 1 | Daihatsu Mira | 20,052 | 284% | 1 | 102,411 | 10% | 4 | 5 |
| 2 | Suzuki WagonR | 14,885 | 16% | 3 | 146,486 | -19% | 1 | 1 |
| 3 | Daihatsu Move | 11,325 | 48% | 4 | 135,054 | 12% | 2 | 3 |
| 4 | Daihatsu Tanto | 8,269 | -24% | 2 | 119,829 | -34% | 3 | 2 |
| 5 | Suzuki Alto | 7,211 | 19% | 5 | 76,170 | -25% | 5 | 4 |
| 6 | Nissan Moco | 5,584 | 75% | 8 | 56,800 | 10% | 7 | 8 |
| 7 | Suzuki Palette | 5,076 | 0% | 7 | 50,941 | -34% | 8 | 6 |
| 8 | Honda Life | 4,865 | 23% | 6 | 63,284 | 13% | 6 | 7 |
| 9 | Nissan Roox | 4,294 | 25% | 9 | 46,161 | -4% | 9 | 9 |
| 10 | Mitsubishi eK | 2,337 | -21% | 11 | 29,763 | -11% | 10 | 11 |
| 11 | Suzuki MR Wagon | 2,150 | 249% | 10 | 26,855 | 135% | 11 | 19 |
| 12 | Subaru Stella | 2,119 | 28% | 15 | 22,882 | -17% | 12 | 13 |
| 13 | Toyota Pixis Space | 2,059 | new | 12 | 4,120 | new | n/a | - |
| 14 | Suzuki Every Wagon | 1,721 | 27% | 13 | 18,738 | 3% | 14 | 15 |
| 15 | Mazda AZ Wagon | 1,515 | 20% | 14 | 20,458 | -13% | 13 | 14 |
| 16 | Suzuki Jimny | 1,238 | 14% | 16 | 11,988 | 13% | 17 | 22 |
| 17 | Daihatsu Atrai | 905 | -17% | 18 | 10,500 | -1% | 18 | 20 |
| 18 | Mazda Carol | 884 | 65% | 19 | 9,386 | -14% | 20 | 21 |
| 19 | Honda Zest | 853 | -46% | 17 | 16,972 | -54% | 15 | 10 |
| 20 | Nissan Otti | 734 | -11% | 21 | 7,200 | -42% | 23 | 17 |
Source: www.zenkeijikyo.or.jp
No problem! I just wish the Englsh wikipedia was more thorough, there’s a few kei cars where it deems to give up covering them 5 to 10 years ago. It said the Suzuki Every Wagon was ‘related’ to the Wagon R, and it was that vague, but the Japanese wikipedia as far as I can tell doesn’t say that, so I ignored that.
I also didn’t mention the Jimny, I presume that is viable because of exports, but it’s a little 4×4 with a ladder chassis, which fits within the kei criteria, rather than a standard kei car, so it’s hard to compare.
Due to development costs and small profit margins in this market a lot of these are badge engineered versions of each other, or are on the same platform, just out of interest I combined those to see what it looked like:
Daihatsu Mira/Move/Tanto/Subaru Stella/Toyota Pixis Space 37,555
Suzuki Wagon R/Palette/Mazda AZ Wagon/Nissan Roox 25,770
Suzuki Alto/Mazda Carol 8,095
Suzuki MR Wagon/Nissan Moco 7,734
Honda Life/Zest 5,718
Mitsubishi eK/Nissan Otti 3,071
Suzuki Every Wagon 1,721
Suzuki Jimny 1,238
Daihatsu Atrai 905
some are more closely related than others – for instance, the Mazda AZ Wagon is a badge-engineered Suzuki Wagon R, and the Nissan Roox is a badge-engineered Suzuki Palette, but they’re all on the same platform, as I understand it. Similarly the Subaru Stella is specifically a Daihatsu Move and the Toyota Pixis Space is specifically a Daihatsu Move Conte (a Move with a boxy body).
The Suzuki Every Wagon and Daihatsu Atrai are viable presumably because they are based on commercial vehicles, not covered here.
I note that Honda doesn’t play with anyone else, as is their way, which must affect their competitiveness when it comes to economies of scale, and the future for the eK/Otti doesn’t look good – I understand they were based on the underpinnings of the Mitsubishi Minica kei car/commercial which was put out of its misery in the summer due to poor sales. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Mitsubishi go the way of Nissan and get their kei cars from Daihatsu or Suzuki. This is just speculation from me, Mitsubishi could be planning a kei comeback for all I know!
Thank you for all this very insightful info Keir!
cheers
Matt