Car sales in Japan continue to drop in June

While new vehicle sales in Japan dropped in June, the decline was smaller than the margins that plagued the industry in previous months. Excluding sales of mini-vehicles with engine sizes of up to 660 cc, sales of new cars totaled 149,558 units, 12.1% lower than the previous year’s figures. New auto sales at Toyota Motor Corp. declined by 8.6% from a year earlier, still a 15.1 percentage point improvement from May figures. Toyota’s sales may have been boosted by the launch of the fully remodeled Prius gasoline-electric hybrid, which emerged as the top-selling car in the country soon after its debut in May. Honda Motor Co. also enjoyed new vehicle sales growth due to continuously brisk demand for its new Insight hybrid. However, in contrast, Nissan Motor Co., which has no hybrid model in its product line-up, saw the rate of its sales drop increase 19.6 percentage points to 28.7%.(June 26, 2009)