CHIBA, Japan, Jan 10 (Reuters) – South Korea’s Hyundai Motor (005380.KS) said on Friday it would introduce the cheapest compact electric car in Japan to penetrate a market dominated by local giants with their established petrol and hybrid vehicle technologies.
The Japan launch of the Hyundai Inster follows attempts by Tesla, to open a new tab and other foreign brands to enter a country seeing a slow take-up of EVs. With the Inster, Hyundai will adopt a low-price strategy similar to China’s leading EV maker, BYD 002594. SZ.
The Instery, which premiered in the European market last year after Casper Electric launched first in South Korea, will enter the Japanese market, around May this year, said Hyundai Mobility Japan CEO Toshiyuki Shimegi. Speaking during a news conference at the Tokyo Auto Salon motor show, Shimegi announced that the Instery would be priced at 2.85 million yen or $18,000 to become the cheapest compact electric car in Japan. That is below the 3.63 million yen threshold set by BYD’s Dolphin in 2023.
In Japan’s ultra-compact, limited-power “kei car” category, Nissan Motor’s 7201.T, opens a new tab Sakura, which sells for 2.60 million yen, is the nation’s best-selling EV.
But even the Sakura had fewer than 23,000 sales last year, down nearly 40% from 2023, an industry tally showed, illustrating the lack of popularity of electric vehicles in a Japanese passenger car market that has roughly 4 million annual vehicle sales. Last year, Hyundai sold only 607 vehicles in Japan, while BYD sold 2,223. Tesla did not disclose its Japan sales.
“Inster is our core product to win Japanese customers’ recognition,” Shimegi said, adding that it helped Hyundai meet its goal of boosting Japanese sales tenfold in the next five years.
Hyundai, which forms the world’s third-largest auto group with Kia (000270.KS), opens a new tab, re-entered Japan’s passenger car market in 2022 with only electric and fuel cell vehicles, after exiting in 2009 due to low sales in a country dominated by Toyota Motor (7203.T), opens a new tab, Honda Motor (7267.T), opens a new tab and other Japanese auto majors.
