Unlike other car markets that have been following trends with the popularity of electric vehicles, the EV car market in Japan has been sluggish as the automakers in the country have been slow to catch up with EV trends.
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In 2022, only 1.7% of EV cars were sold in Japan compared to 15% in Western Europe, 5.3% in the US, and even higher in China. As a result of this, Japanese car manufacturers have performed badly in a recent Green Peace ranking on car manufacturers working hard to phase off combustion engines, with Japanese brands like Suzuki last and Toyota, the world’s biggest automaker by revenue, coming third from the bottom.
Why Are Japanese Automakers Not Making Electric Vehicles (Yet)?
While other car brands in Europe, America, Korea, and China have been embracing electric vehicles, Japanese automakers are still playing catch-up with hybrid vehicles that combine battery power and internal combustion engines.
Speaking on the matter, Chinese car industry employee Gao Yulu told AFP at a recent auto show that foreign EVs “feel like products feel like products from the previous generation.”
Going further, she stated that “for Japanese brands, there are very few products to begin with. And their product strength isn’t strong in terms of price and performance.”
In the EV world, even Chinese carmakers are vying to push off brands like Toyota and Nissan in their own country. However, Japanese automakers have vowed to step up in the EV game as brands like Toyota plan to sell 1.5 million electric vehicles annually by 2026 and 3.5 million by 2030, as the brand has invested heavily in battery technology.
