Atsushi Ikeda loves his car so much that he founded a club for Tesla owners, but his embrace of an electric vehicle makes him something of an outlier in Japan. | AFP
TOKYO -Atsushi Ikeda loves his car so much that he founded a club for Tesla owners, but his embrace of an electric vehicle makes him something of an outlier in Japan.
“I think Toyota didn’t want the trend to tilt towards plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles because of their focus on hybrids and also their significant investment,” said Kenichiro Wada, president of the Japan Electrification Research Institute, who helped develop early EVs at Mitsubishi Motors in the 2000s.
There are now government incentives for people to go electric, but Ikeda says “charging infrastructure is too weak in Japan”, blaming “heavy regulations”.The situation in Japan is increasingly inconsistent with priorities elsewhere. Hybrids looked like a better bet, and have proved enduringly popular, making up more than 40 percent of sales in Japan last year.
Last year, Nissan launched its “Sakura” model — a fully electric car in the mini-sized “kei” category that is popular in Japan. It accounted for a third of the country’s EV sales in 2022.
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