Japan July 2013: Toyota Aqua reclaims top spot year-to-date

Toyota Aqua

* See the Top 30 best-selling models by clicking on the title! Many thanks to Stephen *

The Japanese new car market (ex-Kei cars) is down 13% year-on-year in July to 284,314 registrations, bringing the year-to-date total to 1,925,346 units, down 12% on 2012. Note imports are included in this total and are smoothing the fall a little, being themselves up 3% year-on-year in July and 12% year-to-date. 2013 will be remembered as the year when Japanese consumers couldn’t decide between Toyota’s two best-selling hybrids: one month after the Prius took away the year-to-date pole position from the Aqua, the latter has its revenge and leads the July sales charts by far thanks to 28,657 units sold, up 9%, vs. 23,067 for the Prius, down 31%. The Aqua therefore reclaims the year-to-date top spot thanks to 160,993 sales vs. 155,539 for the Prius.

Subaru XV Hybrid

Kicked down to #4 in May and June by the Honda Fit, the Nissan Note is back in third place this month and for the 9th time in the last 11 month at 11,712 units (+399%) vs. 11,553 (-55%) for the Fit. The new generation Fit will kick start in August so expect this order to change once again. The Toyota Vitz is stable at #5, the Nissan Serena up one spot to #6, the Toyota Crown down two to #8 but up 167% year-on-year, while the Subaru Impreza is up one rank to #10 thanks to the arrival of the XV hybrid version. Note also the Toyota Spade up 118% year-on-year to #12, the Subaru Forester up 1031% to #20 and the Mazda Atenza (aka Mazda6) up 1193% to #29.

Previous post: Japan 6 months 2013: Toyota Prius and Aqua fight it off

Previous month: Japan June 2013: Toyota Prius passes Aqua year-to-date

One year ago: Japan July 2012: New generation pushes Toyota Corolla to 2 year-high

Full July 2013 Top 20 Ranking Table below.