Toyota’s sales in Japan rose 48 percent year-on-year last month, an industry group said yesterday, as the carmaker displayed resilience at home despite its massive global safety recalls.
Toyota delivered 146,145 cars, trucks and buses last month, the Japan Automobile Dealers’ Association (JADA) said.
The carmaker sold 3,373 units of its luxury Lexus brand, up 257 percent from the same period last year, the group said.
The surge was part of a broader rise in the domestic industry from a year ago when demand was hit by a deep recession. Sales in the sector rose 35 percent year-on-year to 294,887 units last month, JADA said.
Rivals Honda and Nissan also recorded strong figures. Sales of Honda, Japan’s second-largest carmaker, grew 36 percent to 41,009 units and Nissan’s were up 18 percent to 47,948, JADA said.
Government stimulus measures launched to boost the economy out of its worst post-war recession contributed to the rise, a JADA official said, adding that the trend would likely continue until the incentives end in September.
Toyota’s domestic sales success came despite its global recall crisis that has seen it pull some 8.7 million vehicles worldwide and forced it to suspend the sale of eight models in the US including the popular Camry.
Toyota is scheduled to release today last month’s data for the US, its biggest overseas market, where sales fell 8.7 percent in January. Some investors are bracing for a drop by as much as 20 percent as the suspended models in the US represented more than 60 percent of Toyota’s inventory.
The Japan figures, however, were not a complete surprise to analysts as brand loyalty towards the carmaker remains strong in Japan and domestic dealers have responded swiftly to car repairs, the JADA official said.
“The blows to Toyota’s image here are contained thanks to dealers’ handling of recalls. So I don’t think the image has not been as dented as it has been overseas,” he said.
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