Daihatsu Mira e:S Order Book Explodes

Back in July, I wrote about the new Daihatsu Mira e:S that achieves an almost hybrid-level of fuel economy (30 km / l) and yet at 795,000 Yen is less than half of the cost of the hybrid standard – the Toyota Prius. Of course, it is a kei car, which means it is not as large as the Toyota and has its engine size limited to 660CC, but that has not stopped it gaining a lot of attention in the Japanese media.

The result has been that this is Daihatsu’s most successful launch ever: In just two weeks, they have booked orders for 25,000 cars, which is 3.6 times as many as they were aiming to sell per month. To put this in perspective, Daihatsu’s previous number one hit launch (the Tanto in December 2007) achieved sales of 24,000 units – but this was over the whole first month after launch. At this rate the Mira e:S is on course to reach double that figure.

Source: Nikkei (Japanese language)