By beating Toyota in its own land, Japan, BYD made an important title and a historical record. We will talk more about this issue later.
Maybe if we went back ten years ago and talked about the flagship of a Chinese car manufacturer in Germany, Japan and prominent European countries, we would have been met with laughter from the audience, but now the BYD brand is a well-known and reliable name in all the countries we mentioned. It is moving towards Tesla, and Japanese and Korean companies have joined forces to defeat it. In the last article of the Gadget News car news series, we are going to go to a historical record of BYD for the first time, which we have never seen before in the world. In addition, before starting the work, it is not bad to mention that Nebeka company has started an important cooperation by importing BYD cars.
BYD became Japan’s best-selling electric car
In 2024, for the first time, BYD surpassed Toyota in sales of all-electric vehicles. This change comes at a time when the electric car market in Japan has been facing a significant decline. According to data from Japanese car dealers, a total of 59,736 all-electric vehicles were sold in the country in 2024, a 33 percent drop from the previous year and the first drop in electric vehicle sales in Japan in four years. In the meantime, BYD experienced a 54% growth compared to the previous year with the sale of 2,223 electric vehicles, and was able to overtake Toyota, whose sales dropped by 30% to 2,038 units.
BYD entered Toyota’s domestic market in 2023 with the release of Atto 3 models in the crossover class and Dolphin in the hatchback class. After that, BYD Seal electric sedan was also added to this product portfolio. The automaker plans to launch its fourth vehicle in Japan in 2025, the BYD Sealion 07 EV. The price of BYD Dolphin model in Japan starts from 19 thousand US dollars. It should be noted that all models offered by BYD in Japan are fully electric.
The share of electric vehicles in the Japanese market is expected to fall below 2% in 2024, which is the lowest among developed markets. While sales of electric vehicles in other markets are growing at a slower pace. It’s also worth noting that Toyota’s first electric car, the bZ4X crossover, is expected to sell 1,012 units in 2024, a 10 percent increase. The price of this car in the Japanese market starts from 34800 US dollars.
Having about 50% of the electric car market in Japan, Nissan Motor Company is still considered the leader of this market. However, Nissan sales also fell 44 percent to 30,749 units, the lowest since 2021. Sales of the Nissan Sakura model, an electric car, reached 22,926 units with a sharp drop of 38%. Meanwhile, sales of the Leaf saw a steeper 48 percent decline.
Among imported EV brands, Tesla is clearly the market leader, with BYD accounting for roughly 40 percent of Tesla’s sales in Japan. The company previously announced that it plans to open 100 stores in Japan by 2025.
RCO NEWS