Japan Kei cars March 2014: Daihatsu Tanto above 30,000 sales!

The Daihatsu Tanto breaks its monthly volume record this month.

* See the Top 33 All-models and Top 8 brands by clicking on the title! *

Tremendous strength of the Kei cars market this month in Japan: up 22% year-on-year top 302,350 registrations which brings the 1st Quarter total to 735,001 units, up 25% on 2013. This is to be compared with 774,400 sales of all categories of cars over the same period in Brazil, 711,752 in Germany and 688,122 in the UK! Illustrating this fascinating obsession Japanese consumers have with this format of cars, no less than 6 Kei cars sell over 20,000 units this month vs. only 3 regular cars (Fit-Aqua-Prius)… The top seller for the 4th month running is the Daihatsu Tanto which passes the 30,000 monthly unit-milestone for the very first time to break its single-month volume record at 30,688 sales, almost doubling its sales year-on-year (+92%). The Tanto thus takes a significant option towards the Full Year 2014 crown, which would be a first for this nameplate.

Honda N-WGN Custom

Leader in 2013, the Honda N-BOX is back up two spots on February to #2 with 26,627 sales but is stuck in 4th place so far in 2014. Two recently launched models also break records this month: the Nissan Dayz is up 27% on February to reach 26,190 units while the Honda N-WGN has not stopped growing since its November 2013 launch: up another 24% on last month to pass the 20,000 monthly-unit benchmark for the first time at 23,929 sales. The Suzuki Wagon R (21,587) and Daihatsu Mira (21,300) follow. Notice also the Suzuki Spacia up 111% year-on-year, the Mitsubishi eK up 120% and the Suzuki Hustler stable in 11th position.

Previous month: Japan Kei cars February 2014: Nissan Dayz above 20,000 units

One year ago: Japan Kei cars March 2013: Suzuki Spacia lands in 9th place

Full March 2014 Top 33 All-models and Top 8 brands Ranking Tables below.