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.
As markets from China to the United States race to put more EVs on their roads, the pedal is nowhere near the metal yet in Japan — where hybrids still reign supreme.
Last year, 59,000 new EVs were sold in Japan. That’s a record and a threefold annual increase, but still less than 2% of sales of all cars in the country in 2022.
Unable to view this article?
This could be due to a conflict with your ad-blocking or security software.
Please add japantimes.co.jp and piano.io to your list of allowed sites.
If this does not resolve the issue or you are unable to add the domains to your allowlist, please see this FAQ.
We humbly apologize for the inconvenience.
In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.
By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.
SUBSCRIBE NOW
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.