Electric car market share in Japan 2010-2019
What is Japan’s stance on e-mobility?
Japan is one of the leading industrial nations in the world, with auto production being a major pillar of the domestic economy. Yet, when it comes to battery-powered electric vehicles, the country’s largest manufacturers have been left behind by the latest technological shift in the automobile sector.
After focusing primarily on hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles in the past, Japan has been increasingly branching out in EV technologies. In early 2018, several Japanese vehicle manufacturers joined the newly founded company EV C.A. Spirit Corporation. The venture established by Toyota, Mazda and Denso is seen as an agreement among Japan’s top automotive players to collaborate on affordable electric vehicle technologies to catch up with international rivals’ production of battery-powered cars.
Efforts are likely to pay out, since EV registrations continue to rise in Japan, reaching almost 27 thousand newly registered passenger cars in 2018.
The most commonly known electric car models among Japanese were predominantly manufactured by domestic brands, such as the Nissan Leaf or Toyota’s Prius PHEV.
Is Japan’s future going to be greener?
As of mid-2019, the purchase of an electric vehicle was only considered by a small percentage of Japanese consumers, mainly due to the comparably high price point, but also due to an apparent lack of charging stations within the country. While there were almost 23 thousand slow chargers publicly available in Japan in 2019, the number of fast chargers reached only about 7,800 stations in the same year.
However, a great share of consumers in Japan would be willing to invest in the purchase of an electric vehicle if the state offered certain incentives. Among those, tax rebates and subsidies were the most appealing motivators.