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The story
Chinese EV giant BYD has reportedly reached 10,000 vehicle deliveries in Japan’s passenger car market roughly three years and nine months after entering it, with its kei-class (Japan’s compact minicar standard) battery EV “RACCO,” launched in late July, now accounting for about 80% of orders and becoming the brand’s flagship model, according to Chinese media. On 5ch forum threads, posters pointed out that the delivery count per dealership looks tiny given the headline total, and many said they never actually see the car on the road despite the strong sales — sparking a recurring back-and-forth between claims of “I see them all the time in Tokyo” and counterclaims of “I’ve never seen one.” Reactions also diverged sharply over perceptions of Chinese EV quality and expectations for future market share.
Chinese outlet Kuai Technology reported on the 8th that, in connection with BYD delivering its 10,000th new vehicle in Japan, the battery EV “RACCO,” designed specifically to meet Japan’s kei-car standard and launched in late July, has already become the brand’s flagship sales model.
According to the report, BYD reached its 10,000th delivery about three years and nine months after entering Japan’s passenger car market in January 2023. That milestone vehicle was the “SEALION 6,” a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and the first PHEV BYD introduced for the Japanese market.
The report noted that BYD’s passenger vehicle registrations in Japan rose 68% year-on-year to 3,742 units in 2025, then rose 42.7% year-on-year to 2,334 units from January to June 2026, before hitting an all-time monthly high of 1,260 units in August 2026 — with RACCO accounting for roughly 80% of those orders.
Source: recordchina.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Japan's domestic EV (BEV) sales in September 2026 came in at 16,074 units, up 88.6% year-on-year — an all-time monthly record, it was revealed on the 6th. EVs' share of total passenger car sales also hit a record high of 4.5%. Sales grew for standard-size EVs from Toyota, Nissan, SUBARU and others. The Japan Automobile Dealers Association says "the subsidy effect is huge," but whether the growth continues hinges on when the current subsidy program — expected to stop accepting applications sometime this year — actually closes. (Alterna Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Hiroyuki Kyomasa)
No Japanese person actually trusts Chinese media.
You're Chinese, aren't you.
If you live in Tokyo, you actually see them fairly often.
They stick in your memory, so you react like "oh, a RACCO!"
It's a nice car.
Makes you think Chinese-made cars have really come this far.
I grew up with the image that "Made in China" meant shoddy goods, so having that assumption shattered is unsettling.
No way, I'd never buy one — too embarrassing, and it'll probably break down before long anyway lol
Never see 'em lol
Do you live right in front of a BYD dealership or something lol
With 10,000 of these on the road, you'd think I'd be able to spot one too, but…
It's not like it has a particularly distinctive shape though.
Can you really spot a RACCO at a glance on the street?
Meanwhile they barely cover Suzuki's new kei EV at all.
Probably because it doesn't have sliding doors, and the "S" badge is stuck in a weird spot.
There's no real upside to buying one when there are so many trustworthy domestic automakers.
Honestly, once you see how bad Suzuki's kei EV is,
even a non-Chinese person starts wanting a RACCO.
Thanks a bunch for that. (sarcastic stock phrase, like "much obliged")
That's not selling at all lol
Well, that's probably just how the older generation of Japanese sees it.
Can't be helped, I guess.
The generation that's going to shape Japan's future doesn't carry as strong an image of Chinese goods being shoddy.
Given China's economic and technological strength, Chinese cars are only going to become more common in Japan.
If Japan's domestic automakers were still strong, it'd be a different story. But Nissan's done, Honda's shaky too, and even Toyota barely has a presence in global markets lately.
You
clearly haven't looked at
BYD's suspension setup.
It's stuck back in the 2008 era.
Some motoring journalist I'd never heard of praised it in this really confusing way — saying the ride quality resonating up through the body feels like a 1990s Golf, giving a sense of structural rigidity.
I took that to mean the body and chassis are at a 30-year-old standard — is that supposed to mean the tech is advanced?
Funny thing is, I've never seen a BYD except as a taxi.
If we're talking taxis, I see a lot of Hyundais too.
I do see them.
Either you don't actually remember what the RACCO looks like, or you're assuming a Chinese car would stick out badly —
but in reality it just blends in normally, so you're simply not noticing it.
I've seen them with my own eyes, so I'm not interested in turning this into a pointless he-said-she-said.
Does the driving data and customer info get sent back to mainland China?
Sure, yeah.
I think that's fine for you.
Toyota and Honda will probably both still be around just fine until your time's up anyway.
I'm just saying it might go differently for the next, younger generation.
Haha, he called me "you."
Coming from some weirdo, no less lol
Saying it like "the younger generation will choose BYD cars" is a bit of a stretch, don't you think?
All that really means is that the younger generation just wants a car that doesn't break down and is as cheap as possible — that's the kind of car they're after, that's all you're really saying.
Isn't the actual winner there Google though…
Wait, is the iPhone even Chinese?
Well, I don't know who that random motoring journalist even is, and that's just their opinion anyway.
Not sure why you're asking me about it…
From what I can see watching RACCOs drive around Tokyo from the outside, it looks quiet and smooth — seems like a perfectly good car to me.
I just haven't ridden in one myself though.
What does "looks quiet and smooth from the outside" even mean?
It's an EV, so of course it's quiet.
Is there even such a thing as a car that looks "not smooth" from the outside?
I've never seen an EV that looks noisy and rough from the outside lol
Have you never owned a car?
You can't tell if a car is actually good unless you ride in it — or rather, own it.
That's embarrassing, so maybe stop there.
Background and key points of this discussion
Kei cars make up nearly 40% of new vehicle sales in Japan, a segment long dominated by domestic makers like Honda’s N-BOX and Suzuki — one where a foreign maker’s kei EV becoming a flagship product has almost no precedent. BYD’s delivery total stands at 10,000 units over roughly three years and nine months, still a tiny slice of the kei-car market overall, which runs into the millions of units a year — meaning the thread’s sense of “I never see one” and the reporting’s framing of it as a “flagship model” aren’t necessarily contradictory. With only 77 dealerships nationwide, how often people actually spot one likely varies a lot by region. The thread also revealed real gaps in attitudes toward Chinese product quality and expectations for future market share — not just simple like-or-dislike, but a generational difference in how people are processing the shift.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Speed+) thread “BYD delivers its 10,000th new vehicle in Japan, with kei BEV “RACCO” already its flagship model — Chinese media.”
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