Japan’s Sports Car Market Inches Up 1.1% in 2020 Despite the Pandemic

In the first 11 months of 2020, Japan’s sports car market inched up 1.1% compared to the same period of the previous year to 42,000 units. While the overall automobile market declined 13% due to COVID-19, sports car brands aroused demand from the wealthy by actively launching new models. Looking back over the past eight years, the market peaked at 70,000 units in 2015 and has been declining, but sales slightly picked up again in 2020.

Looking at sales of the top five brands, Toyota went up 46.9% to 7,750 units driven up by the GR Supra launched in May 2019. Mercedes-Benz increased 4.1% to 7,652 units thanks to solid sales of the fully-redesigned CLA-Class released in September 2019, and BMW rose 42.8% to 5,528 units, benefitting from strong sales of its four-door coupe which was added to the 2 Series in October 2019. Meanwhile Mazda declined 7.2% to 3,736 units and Daihatsu fell 29.3% to 2,579 units.