June sales: 19,150 Prius

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11,514 liftback
3,657 c model
3,284 v model
695 plug-in

It's too bad that the plug-in is in such short supply still, despite being only available in California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, and Hawaii.

Oh well, there's the benefit from the build of anticipation when reading MPG reports from current owners. Hopefully, it won't take too long though for more to be delivered.

 

June alt-fuel sales double year-earlier figures on Prius surge

For EVs the leaf had another bad month at 535, the imev 33, and focus bev started selling at 87

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Of course, those states include almost all of the top US states for per-capita Prius ownership and includes the ones with HOV incentives. It's either supply or demand.

 

thanks bob, i'd like to know how many pips are on the lot nationwide.

 

The numbers in Japan look great:

28,456 liftback
25,079 c model

 

The bulk of the prius cs are being sold in japan as aqua. There are large trade barriers for selling anything but a japanese car in japan. Aqua also has large tax credits in japan.

Because of yen exchange rates toyota is focusing aqua sales on japan where profits are higher. This has resulted in lower shipments and sales of prius c in the US.

 

Austin - There are zero tariffs on imported cars to Japan. Most companies just don't make vehicles catered to the Japanese consumer (sparse parking, small roadways, right hand drive, etc.). The Japanese makers will, of course, make cars catered to their home market and that is why they hold such a high market share.

 

Trade barriers don't have to be tariffs.
Doesn't every imported car have to under go a safety inspection, which holds them up at the port until their cleared?

 

+1

Japanese put barriers up on sales, safety, and service. Hyundai and ford easily sell in China and Europe, why would the Japanese not buy them if not for restrictive regulatory trade barriers. No one is allowed a level playing field in Japan.

 

Preference for domestic brands ?

Who wudda thunk ?
In S. Korea e.g., Hyundai and Kia account for 80% of cars sold, and all imports are < 10%.

 

what are you talking about? How can you even compare it to China, where you have to have 50/50 JV, and even in Europe there are actual tarrifs on cars imported.

There are no tariffs in Japan, they just dont like American cars. Germans sell quite OK in Japan (and rising), but of course they cater to smaller audience since they dont have Kei cars and even Japanese manufacturers have special models for Japan that sell the best there. Normal Corolla/Camry/Rav4 are poor sellers in Japan.

BMW/Audi/MB/VW sell fine.

 

I did not say europe did not have trade barriers or China. Hyundai and Ford have been able to over come those. In Japan the barriers are much much higher. The German cars do not sell very well there, that is a distortion, they just sell better than other imports. There were shortages after the tsunami and foreign car sales soared to 7.7%, but really it isn't even that high because these include sales of Japanese automakers that import their own cars manufactured in other countries. The Japanese companies have the country locked up, which means we can not really look at sales figures there the same way that we can in more open countries. Sales would like not even be as high as they are, but the US and Europe keep threatening forms of trade barriers for cars imported from japanese factories, which has had the japanese government letting up, but only slightly.

 

Europe being more open helped develop the focus, fiesta, and cruze. Japan has heavy incentives for hybrids this year in their tax code. This might spur more development for ford, gm and hyundai if they were able to compete, but they are not. That is why I would not look at that market as an open one. It is not worth talking about as if it is open. Toyota gets to supply cars to the good hybrid market in the US and Japan, which helps it invest and retain competitive advantages. If they only sold in japan, they would also probably not do as well with hybrids in Japan.

We can not really speculate what cars would get produced for the japanese market. There might be a focus hybrid and energi by now. The fiesta would definitely compete as it does in europe. The high yen/dollar exchage would help.

 

you do realize that Europe has tariffs on imported cars, including Japan, right? Ford and Hyundai have local factories in Europe and China... nobody has local factory in japan and nobody has ever build model specifically for Japan.

And what exactly are these barriers? How is the country locked up? You keep repeating it but what is it exactly? Are you talking about Japanese prefference for cars designed for them specifically? I am sure that Japanese culture itself is one of the reasons, but at the same time, that doesnt stop them from buying iPhone.

 

From the all knowing Wiki:

Trade policy of Japan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Since all do not believe in the Wiki, here is another sources.
Business | Analysis -- Trade Barriers Cultural In Japan | Seattle Times Newspaper

Here's The Real Reason For Deflation In Japan - Business Insider

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The paper that article used as its source:​

http://www.testosteronepit.com/storage/Japan-2012%20national%20trade%20policy.pdf​

It isn't just the US auto industry with complaints.​

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Let's get back on the good news of high prii sales in the US, Japanese trade barriers are a distraction, but to explain.

Trollbait gave you some of the reasons. It is closed. The system tends to try to shut down dealerships and repair facilities from dealing with foreign cars. The government then targets incentives to avoid any foreign cars that do sell there to give legs up on local ones. They change inspection rules to force unnecessary repairs.

One of the members of my masters steering committee, told us about the effort to sell american beef, which the people would have bought being much less expensive. They could not get the stores to carry it, because of the closed nature, if the store were to carry american beef other products would not be sold to that store. They finally got around it by selling frozen steaks in vending machines. Once the Japanese could buy american beef, demand greatly increased and it could be sold in normal chanels. Japan slowly became the biggest export market for American beef. This took american goverment pressure to open up the stores, and ingenuity to get the product in front of the people, so they would demand it from stores that would say, "no one wants american beef".

I have been able to sell products in japan trough japanese distributors because the japanese companies do not make these products. iphone was very slow getting penetration in japan because of competing products. Apple already had good distribution because the mac is a unique product. Ipad had no competition and was able to more easily sell, and this has pulled a line for iphone sales. If you have never tried to do business in japan its hard to understand how things work. Its much easier to open an apple store than a car dealership.