Tokyo, Japan – The GreenMonster visits Japan as the dim auto market finds a rare bright spot as sales for Toyota's new Prius hybrid in this country have topped a booming 110,000, according to an announcement by a major dealership.
When the third-generation Prius officially rolled out in Japan just two weeks ago, it has already received 80,000 advance orders. Dealers are overwhelmed.
Toyota has set its sales target for Japan at 10,000 new Prius cars a month. This figure should make the Prius the top-selling car in the country - which is quite a huge accomplishment for a hybrid car.
The demand for hybrids are increasing partly because the Japanese government began offering tax exemptions for the cars to encourage their sales earlier this year, and added a cash-back rebate for trading in cars 13 years or older for greener cars.
Hybrids are also more fuel efficient than gas-engine cars. In highly populated and urbanized areas like Japan where stop-and-go traffic are very common, fuel efficiency of gas-engine cars decrease but increases with hybrid cars as these cars rely on electric motors in heavy traffic.
But overall, the Japanese auto market is still expecting a 550 billion yen ($5.7 billion) loss for the fiscal year through March 2010, its second straight year in the red, because of the global auto slump and the unfavorable exchange rate in a strong yen.
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