This country is one of the leaders in car sales
Elon Musk is irritated by Tesla's weak sales in Japan, which remains one of the world's largest car markets, according to Bloomberg.
«There are some regions where our market share is surprisingly small, for example Japan,— he said at the conference following the results of the fourth quarter. — We should have a market share proportional to, say, other non-Japanese automakers such as Mercedes or BMW, but so far we have not achieved this».
Musk believes that «lack of awareness»is to blame for this. Japanese car owners, which he said he heard about from friends in Japan.
Total imports of electric vehicles into Japan rose 60% to 22,890 units in 2023, according to the Japan Automobile Importers Association. However, imports of electric vehicles in this category, including Tesla models, fell 6.8% last year.
Musk previously predicted that Japan would become the company's largest market outside the US.
Akio Toyoda, chairman of Toyota Motor Corporation, predicted a few days ago that the market share of pure electric vehicles is unlikely to exceed 30%. He believes consumers should have freedom of choice when it comes to choosing alternatives to internal combustion engine vehicles.