Japanese New Car Production Tanks in April 2011
We all know that the Japanese car makers experienced extreme pressure on their domestic production caused by both direct earthquake damage, as well as disruption to the supply chain and power outages in the areas of Japan supplied by TEPCO.
Figures just announced show the full effect of this disruption devastating production during Aprl. Overall production stood at 279,345 units, which represented a 60.1% drop over figures for the same month last year. Toyota and Honda were hit particularly hard, with Toyota production falling by 78.4% over the previous year and Honda seeing an even bigger drop of 81%. With April production standing at 53,823 vehicles, this was the first time that Toyota monthly production had dipped below 100,000 units per month since these figures started being collated.
The full round up of major manufacturers is as follows:
Honda = – 81%
Toyota = – 78.4%
Mazda = – 49.7%
Nissan = – 48.7%
Suzuki = – 31.1%
In the midst of this doom and gloom, a little ray of hope for Nissan is that despite April production and sales figures being their worst ever, Nissan’s overseas sales grew by 10.4%, giving Nissan its strongest overseas sales results for April ever.
