Whoever thought the only certainties in life were death and taxes clearly hasn’t paid attention to the sales charts in Japan lately.
Once again, the Toyota Prius has found itself at the top of the charts – in September it posted 31,758 units, representing an increase of 341 per cent compared to the same month in the previous year.
It is the fifth successive month for Prius to be the number one selling new car in Japan according to official data from the Japan Automobile Dealers Association. In fact, the Toyota Prius now accounts for 10.8 per cent of the country’s total car sales for the month.
Amazingly however, even though the Prius’s total sales were substantially higher than in August (when it posted 21,669 sales), its share of the new vehicle market actually dropped from 12.1 per cent during the previous month. This was largely thanks to a 64 per cent increase in total automobile sales from August to September.
The runners-up in the sales chart included the Honda Fit, which finished second with 17,241 units; followed by the Toyota Vitz at 12,731 units; and the Honda Insight Hybrid at 10,289 units sold.
