Toyota Prius is Japan’s best selling car, imports surge

The Toyota Prius hybrid was the best selling car in Japan last year, a position it has sat on for three years running. A total of 252,528 units of the Prius were sold in 2011, assisted by strong sales of the Prius Alpha, an MPV version of the car that debut in May.

It’ll take a brave man to bet against the Prius retaining the position this year. This is because the range is further strengthened by the Prius c variant, a smaller and more affordable Prius. The Prius c has been teased on UMW Toyota’s website, with full specs, and at the Avanza launch on Wednesday, bosses said it will be launched next month in Malaysia.

Honda’s Fit (we know it as Jazz) was the second best selling car with 207,882 units, up from fourth spot in the previous year’s rankings, while Suzuki’s Wagon R minicar was third with 160,439 units.

2011 was a difficult year for the industry in Japan, which was hit by an earthquake and tsunami in March, so total sales were down by 20%. Local production suffered, and imports took advantage – sales of foreign cars crossed the 10% mark for the first time ever last year.

Of the foreign brands, Volkswagen sold the most for the 12th straight year with 50,635 units, an increase of 8.4%. Other top foreign marques were BMW (34,195 cars, up 5.5%) and Mercedes-Benz.

© 2012 Paul Tan's Automotive News. All Rights Reserved.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Fri, 13 Jan 12 03:47:09 +0000.

Related Posts

1. Toyota Prius c arriving soon – teased on UMW Toyota site
2. Toyota Prius – not all next-gen versions to be plug-in
3. Toyota leads Indonesia vehicle sales with 37% market share, best selling Avanza still going strong
4. Toyota Prius c Concept unveiled at Detroit 2011 – smallest Prius due for market introduction in 2012
5. UMW Toyota to fix Prius ABS software issue
6. RM175k Toyota Prius now available in Malaysia
7. 3rd generation Toyota Prius: first impressions
8. 50 new Toyota Prius for the British Army
9. Toyota Hybrid X Concept points to new Toyota Prius
10. Toyota Prius sales down

Link to full article