Japan January 2012: Toyota Aqua starts with a splash!

Toyota Aqua

* See the Top 30 best-selling models by clicking on the title! *

The Japanese car market is up a whopping 41% year-on-year in January to 263,267 registrations, the biggest rise on record for a month of January, albeit from a historically low base, thanks to the extension beyond the March deadline of tax incentives to buy fuel-efficient cars. As a result the Toyota Prius has shot up to a massive 11.1% market share this month thanks to 29,108 sales, up 112% on January 2011, while the Honda Fit, boosted by its hybrid version, is a strong #2 at 21,449 units up 44%. The Honda Freed rounds up the podium with 14,042 sales (+166%).

But the big event this month is the thunderous arrival of the Toyota Aqua (called Prius C in export markets), launched on December 26, with 13,485 units sold for its first full month of sales. It lands directly #4 with a solid 5.1% market share. 120,000 orders for the Aqua were received in the last 5 days of last year, to be added to about 60,000 orders prior to the launch, whereas the current production capacity is limited to 30,000 units a month.

Toyota Aqua

We have to go back to 2003 and the launch of the Toyota Wish to see similar launch figures for an all-new nameplate in Japan! This now means that Toyota’s two best-selling cars in Japan are hybrid cars, with the Toyota Vitz coming third at 8,000 units this month.

Other great performing models this month include the Nissan Serena at #5 up 130% year-on-year, the Toyota Vellfire at #7 (+82%), Toyota Voxy at #8 (+76%), Toyota Alphard at #14 (+85%), Subaru Impreza at #23 (+127%), Toyota Sienta at #26 (+500%) and Toyota Camry at #29 (+3304%)…

Previous post: Japan Full Year 2011: Toyota Prius leads in difficult year

One year ago: Japan January 2011: Prius dethroned, Fit and Vitz up

Full January 2012 Top 30 Ranking Table below.