Japan June 2019: Toyota Prius 3peats at #1 regular car, Nissan Dayz up 41% to #2 overall

The new model pushes Nissan Dayz sales up 41% year-on-year.

New light vehicle sales in Japan edge down -0.7% year-on-year in June to 450.397. The brands podium remains totally unaffected and score the only year-on-year gains in the Top 8: Toyota (+4.2%) improves to 29.9% share, Honda (+7.5%) to 15% and Daihatsu (+1.5%) to 12.1%. In contrast, Mazda (-27.4%), Suzuki (-14.4%) and Mitsubishi (-9.4%) all freefall while Nissan (-0.2%) and Subaru (-2.4%) contain their fall somewhat. Rounding up the Top 10 are Isuzu (+25.6%) in outstanding shape and Hino (+0.3%) almost immobile. Mercedes (+0.9%) remains the most popular foreign brands but gets kicked out of the Top 10, it distances BMW (-5.4%), Volkswagen (-10.2%) and Mini (+5.9%). Other great performers include Bentley (+120.8%), Ferrari (+88.5%), McLaren (+66.7%), Land Rover (+59.6%), Jeep (+42.8%), Abarth (+42.8%), DS (+29.1%), Lamborghini (+15.8%), Lexus (+9.9%) and Citroen (+9.6%).

The Toyota Prius (+21.5%) 3peats at #1 in the regular cars charts, distancing the Nissan Note (+6.7%) by just 18 units with the Toyota Aqua (-25.1%) closing the podium. The Honda Fit (+11.1%) leaps up 5 spots on May to #4, the Toyota Corolla (+4.8%) is up one to #5, with the Toyota Sienta (+13.4%) and Honda Freed (+7.4%) also strong in the Top 10. Although down 4 ranks on last month to #11, the Toyota RAV4, now also on sale at home, easily retains the title of #1 SUV, well above the Honda Vezel at #14 and the Toyota C-HR at #19. Great progressions are rare in the Top 50 and include the Subaru Forester (+64.6%), Honda Shuttle (+35.9%), Toyota Land Cruiser W (+38.3%) and Hiace (+22%). Among new launches, below the RAV4 we have the Mazda3 (#36), Lexus UX250H (#46), ES300H (#47) and Honda CR-V (#48).

Once again kei cars command higher volumes with the Honda N-BOX (+14.1%) untouchable in the lead, the Nissan Dayz (+41%) pushed up by the new generation, but also the Suzuki Spacia (-4.8%) and Daihatsu Tanto (+11.2%) all outselling the Toyota Prius for the month. The Suzuki Jimny (+470.3%) continues to progress thanks to the new generation. Over Q2, the foreign models ranking is significantly reshuffled: below the Mini (-0.03%), Mercedes C-Class (+48.1%) and VW Golf (-8.2%) holding onto their Q1 spots despite wildly different evolutions, the Audi A3 (+20.6%) leaps from outside the Q1 Top 20 directly into 4th place, the BMW 3 Series (+25.3%) is up 3 spots to #5, the Mercedes A-Class (+99.3%) is up to #6 and the Volvo 60-Series (+13.2% up to #8 just as the VW Polo (-39.4%), BMW 2 Series (-29.3%) and Mercedes E-Class (-27.3%) crumble down.

Previous month: Japan May 2019: Toyota (+13.4%), Honda (+15.5%) lift market up 6.5%, RAV4 leaps to #1 SUV

One year ago: Japan June 2018: Toyota down -16.3%, Lexus, Mazda up

Full June 2019 Top 50 All-brands, Top 50 regular cars, Top 30 All-kei cars and Q2 2019 Top 20 foreign cars below.