Jeep sales are up 36 percent there.
We ve already noted that the Jeep brand is staking its claim in Japan. Now Q1 sales are in and the brand is up again, 36% in March over last year. The early adopters are expectedly, the young. I like outdoor activities and I was looking for a car that has high horsepower and can carry a lot of baggage, said 24-year-old Tsubasa Imai, who just bought a Jeep Grand Cherokee. There also aren t too many cars in Japan that can tow a boat as well as look cool.
Jeep sales are expected to increase 5% this year to more than 15,000 units, said Hitoshi Ushikubo, the head of sales at Fiat Chrysler Japan, in an interview Monday. Automotive News notes that Fiat Chrysler Japan has yet to be merged with Peugeot in the company. But it will eventually fall under the new Stellantis name.
Jeeps are plain cool no matter where.
Japan has long been familiar with the Jeep brand, going all the way back to WWII. During the conflict, Japanese soldiers captured an abandoned US Army Jeep in the Philippines and sent it home to be reverse-engineered. The result was the first Toyota Land Cruiser. Today, Jeeps remain very popular in Japan and the automaker intends to seriously expand volume over the next three years.
Automotive News reports this new expansion plan involves opening at least 100 new dealerships in the country through 2023. Currently, there are 82. Over the next three years, Jeep aims to sell over 20,000 units a year, up from last year s record of 13,588. This was also Japan s seventh consecutive year of record Jeep sales, despite the pandemic.