Japan 3rd Quarter 2015 & YTD
Plug-in sales continued below expectations in the last few months, with only two year-on-year positive results in the last six months, both in the third quarter (July and August). Looking at volumes, the second quarter of the year was the weakest, with only 3.530 units, a pale result compared to the 7.930 of Q1 or the 8.950 of Q3. This last quarter was a bright spot in the doom and gloom of this year scenery, with plug-in market share rising to 0,87 %, a significant departure from the 0,39 % of Q2 and a sign that the numbers might go back to black soon.
Plug-In Hybrids grew in Q3 in Japan
The Japanese market basically runs around two models, the pure EV Nissan Leaf and the Plug-in Hybrid Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, so whenever one of them has a significant change in performance, the BEV / PHEV share follows suit. This was the case in the last quarter, as the redesigned Outlander hit dealerships and pulled the PHEV version sales up, so did the share of plug-in hybrids, outselling pure EV's for the first time since September '14.
Outlander and Leaf only strong sellers in Japan
The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV and Nissan Leaf represented 86 % of the market in September, the Outlander responsible for 1.896 units, or 60 % of that months sales. The Toyota Prius Plug-in keeps loosing losing share at two digit rates and is likely to be outsold by the BMW i3, soon. We are talking small numbers for all models except the 2 leaders, which indicates the vulnerability of the Japan Plug-in market. There current two-model dominance chokes the progress and diversity in product offerings and sales in Japan do not follow the global trend.
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