As electric vehicles (EVs) become more popular in China and Europe, leading overseas manufacturers are stepping up their offensive in anticipation of market expansion, such as launching their main EV-only models in Japan.
Among them, Germany's Volkswagen has started selling SUVs = multi-purpose sports vehicles that can run about 560 kilometers on a single charge from this month.
This car is the flagship EV-only model to be deployed overseas, and is the first to be introduced to the Japanese market.
Andrea Carcani, Brand Director, said, "Japan's EV market is still not large, but customers are becoming more environmentally conscious. From now on, we would like to introduce a new EV model every year."
In addition, Tesla, which has the world's largest share of EVs, began delivering new models from September, and BYD, which has the second largest market share in China, newly entered the passenger car market, launching three models sequentially from the beginning of the year. Leading overseas manufacturers, which have been ahead in sales of , are stepping up their offensive.
According to the Japan Automobile Importers Association, the number of EVs sold by overseas manufacturers in Japan from the beginning of this year until last month was 9,733 units, which is about 1.5 times more than the same period last year, and has already exceeded the total for the past year. This is the highest ever.
This year, domestic manufacturers such as Toyota Motor and Nissan are also releasing new models one after another, and the focus is on the direction of competition with increasingly aggressive overseas manufacturers and how far the Japanese EV market will expand.