In the Philippines, with major automakers advancing product strategies that rely on imported vehicles from Thailand and Indonesia, efforts to expand local production have only made little progress. On the contrary, the outbreak of the new coronavirus and the resulting restrictions prompted some automakers to end production in the Philippines. Following Honda’s plant closure in 2020, Nissan announced in January 2021 that it would end production outsourced to two local companies in March of the same year. Although the Philippines remains a supply hub of trRead more...

Being a business growth driver, ASEAN is a priority market for Mitsubishi Motors. In recent years, sales in ASEAN have accounted for more than 20% of Mitsubishi’s global sales. Operating profit in the region was in the black with about 10 billion JPY even in FY 2020 when company-wide operating profit was in the red. Not only as a market but also as a production base ASEAN has gained importance in the past few years. Mitsubishi Motors is aiming to establish a mutually complementary production network in ASEAN. The company intends to build a system to suppRead more...

Toyota’s vehicle sales (including the Lexus brand) in ASEAN (six countries) in 2020 fell 34.8% year-on-year to 650,000 units due to the impact of the spread of the new coronavirus infection. Toyota witnessed significant decline in sales in its two largest ASEAN markets. The largest decrease in sales was in Indonesia, dropping 51.3% to 162,000 units. In Indonesia, due to the lockdown from April 2020, Toyota’s automobile sales in May fell 97.5% from the same month of the previous year to 716 units. Its market share for the full year of 2020 decreased 1.8 pRead more...

In the Taiwanese vehicle market, the increase of imported automobiles and the decrease of domestic-made vehicles has been a long-term trend. Investment to raise local automobile production has been limited in the past few years. However, in the first half of 2021 local production increased 23.9% from the same period of the previous year to 138,000 units, putting a stop to gradual decline in local production. Local production went up thanks to launching the locally-made Toyota Corolla Cross in the second half of 2020. Taiwan: Manufacturing Bases of MajRead more...

In March 2021, three Japanese automakers Toyota Motor, Hino Motors and Isuzu Motors launched the Commercial Japan Partnership (CJP), a program aimed at solving logistics issues in Japan. Two additional Japanese automakers, Suzuki Motor and Daihatsu Motor, joined CJP in July of the same year. CJP aims to reduce the workload on drivers by utilizing Toyota's CASE technology, including increasing carbon neutrality by electrifying vehicles, and improving the efficiency of logistics in general through connecting technology. Commercial Japan Partnership: Read more...

BluE Nexus is an electric drive module development, adaptation and sales company established in April 2019 by Toyota Group companies Aisin Seiki and Denso, which have top share in both the global transaxle and inverter markets. BluE Nexus is positioned as the core company that promotes the Toyota Group’s electrification business. In August 2020, Toyota Motor acquired a 10% stake in the joint venture. The other 90% is now equally divided between Aisin and Denso. Aisin is in charge of the transaxle and Denso is responsible for the inverter. The motor isRead more...

New vehicle exports from Japan have been around 4.5 million units in recent years, but in 2020, due to the impact of the new coronavirus, volume decreased by more than 20% from the previous year, falling below 4 million units to 3.58 million units for the first time in the past 10 years. In the first half of 2021, exports rose to 1.88 million units, up 21.9% year-on-year. Although the infection situation is still uncertain, recovery is expected because most of the destinations for passenger vehicles, which account for more than 90% of vehicle exports, arRead more...

India’s automobile sales in the first half of 2021 increased 91.9% year-on-year to 1.89 million units. The sharp rise compared to the same period of the previous year is due to India’s nationwide lockdown from the end of March until mid-May 2020, which effectively suspended automobile sales and production, triggered by the outbreak of the new coronavirus infection. Although the Indian automobile market showed a remarkable recovery compared to the same period of 2020, the sales volume in the first six months of 2021 did not reach the level of the firstRead more...

Pakistan’s sales of locally-assembled automobiles in the first half of 2021 increased 2.3 times year-on-year to 104,000 units. The sharp rise is due to nationwide lockdown during the first six months of 2020 (from end of March until mid-May), which is the subject of comparison, triggered by the new coronavirus infection. Although sales have not returned to the pre-corona level of 2019 and before, the reduction of Federal Excise Duty on automobiles in July 2021 has significantly reduced prices which in turn is expected to boost demand. Looking at the sRead more...

The introduction of Bharat Stage 6 (BS6) emission standards in April 2020 prompted automakers to reduce the use of diesel engines. Two automakers Maruti Suzuki and Nissan have gone so far to completely drop diesel engines from their engine lineup. Prior to the launch of BS6, small vehicles were fitted with gasoline engines while medium and large ones with diesel engines. The launch of BS6 has prompted Maruti Suzuki to end the sales of diesel models and focus on gasoline-powered products only. The automaker’s product lineup consists of small models Read more...

Taiwan’s automobile sales in the first six months of 2021 increased 5.7% year-on-year to 222,000 units. Initially, Taiwan has succeeded in suppressing the new coronavirus infection, but the number of infected people exceeded 700 in one week in mid-May 2021, resulting in a 30% decrease in automobile sales in June. However, since the end of June, the daily number of infected people has been kept below 100. Looking at sales by vehicle type, passenger cars such as sedans and hatchbacks continued to decline, going down 12.6% to 65,000 units. On the other hRead more...

South Korea’s automobile sales in the first half of 2021 decreased 2.6% from the same period of the previous year to 902,000 units, becoming the second highest level ever after the previous year’s historic high. Sales of locally-made vehicles decreased 5.5% to 750,000 units, while imported vehicle sales increased 15.2% to 152,000 units. Electric vehicles went up 48.5% to 118,000 units, increasing their market share to 13.1%. Of which, hybrids rose 25.4% to 74,000 units and electric vehicles increased 90.7% to 28,000 units. Looking at sales by vehicle Read more...

In the first half of 2021, motorcycle sales in nine Asian countries (India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam) increased 33.6% from the same period of the previous year to 13.7 million units. The sharp increase in sales is due to a 40% drop in the same period of the previous year triggered by the first wave of the new coronavirus infection. The sales results in the first half of 2021 are less than 80% compared to the first half of 2019 before the outbreak of the pandemic. Looking at motorcycle sales by reRead more...

Vietnam’s automobile sales in the first six months of 2021 increased 40.4% year-on-year to 150,000 units according to the announcement of the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (VAMA) which only releases data on member companies. It was about the same level as in the first half of 2019 when sales reached 154,000 units, recovering from the deep slump of 107,000 units in the first six months of 2020 caused by the outbreak of the new coronavirus infection. If the sales total of two non-VAMA members Hyundai Thanh Cong Vietnam (HTCV), a local subsiRead more...

New registration of automobiles in Singapore in the first six months of 2021 increased 60.0% from the same period of the previous year to 33,000 units. The sharp increase is due to the suspension of the issuance of Certificate of Entitlement (COE) and the temporary closure of automobile dealerships from April to June in the previous year as a result of the outbreak of the new coronavirus infection. However, Singapore’s government has restricted the rate of increase in passenger vehicle ownership to 0% from February 2018 to January 2022. The number of newRead more...

In the first half of 2021, Malaysia’s automobile sales increased 43.6% year-on-year to 249,000 units. The sharp increase is due to new coronavirus restrictions during the same period of the previous year which lasted a month and a half. However, sales in the first six months of 2021 did not reach the 300,000-unit level of the same period in 2019. Full-year sales in 2021 is forecast by Malaysia’s automobile association MAA to drop 5.6% to 500,000 units compared to 2020 due to the reemergence of the virus which prompted Malaysian authorities to declare natRead more...