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The story
It has emerged that Japan’s national EV (electric vehicle) subsidy for fiscal year 2026 had used up about 90% of its budget on purchases through September. With half a year still left before the fiscal year’s end, Tesla received roughly ¥19.1 billion (17% of the total) by manufacturer — second only to Toyota, and ahead of Nissan and Honda. On 5ch, calls of “shouldn’t this be limited to domestic cars?” drew pushback pointing to the risk of tariff retaliation and Japan’s own lagging charging-standard infrastructure, sparking debate over the realities of EV promotion policy. Discussion also touched on how the EV subsidy budget compares to the gasoline subsidy, and the fact that Tesla’s prices aren’t far off from domestic cars.
Japan’s national electric vehicle (EV) subsidy for fiscal year 2026 is on track to have used about 90% of its budget on purchases made through September. With half a year still remaining before the fiscal year ends, the cap is already coming into view. While the subsidy has helped push EV adoption, it has also caused market disruptions, including delivery delays and situations where used cars cost more than new ones.
By manufacturer, about ¥19.1 billion — 17% of the budget — went toward Tesla vehicles, a level second only to Toyota Motor and ahead of Japanese makers like Nissan and Honda.
The EV subsidy is described as “clean…(continued in the paid version, 1,519 characters remaining)
Source: nikkei.com / Original article here
What people said
In Japan's case, doing that outright would trigger tariff retaliation, so it's not an option.
So this time they've worked around it by framing restrictions around disaster-preparedness instead.
The real problem is that Japan's charging standard is so uniquely its own that it's gone "Galapagos" again,
while Tesla's Superchargers were properly installed in major cities above the required standard.
In short, it's just Japanese industry screwing up again.
They spent ages complaining about "China's subsidies!" though.
Hoisted by their own petard.
Even with the weak yen, Toyota, Honda, and Nissan are all losing sales volume and in trouble.
Trends in the global auto market:
In Europe, North America, and China, PHEVs are selling well.
Battery EVs are declining, squeezed out by PHEVs.
Since PHEVs have an internal combustion engine on board,
they still need gasoline.
The Tesla Model 3 is ¥3.34 million and comes with navigation and driving assist.
A Prius with navigation and driving assist is ¥3.32 million.
For about the same price as a Prius, you get Camry-class size.
Nissan lol, their stock finally dropped below ¥300 outright — aren't they done for? lol
A business that relies on subsidies in the first place shouldn't be allowed anyway.
The gasoline subsidy alone is ¥1 trillion this year, you know? EV is ¥100 billion.
I guess it depends on the person's priorities.
They're driving around just fine up there.
I've seen one in Sapporo — a white Model 3.
https://static.tokyo-np.co.jp/image/article/size1/5/3/2/0/5320ce68a46326e9d98161facab7045c_2.jpg
The gasoline subsidy is on pace to burn through ¥4 trillion a year.
Cutting the food consumption tax from 8% to 1% would blow a ¥5 trillion hole annually.
Makes it pretty clear the gasoline subsidy waste is the real problem here.
Since Trump put them on notice recently, they've started holding back on aggressive spending too. Starting this month electricity and gas prices are going up, and the gasoline subsidy will run dry by year-end so that'll rise too.
Real inflation — stagflation — is coming.
https://www.aba-j.or.jp/wp/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/20260520da006b.jpg
HVs and PHVs are down year-on-year.
EVs are doing well.
Yeah, as expected, in Japan HVs are selling in a completely different league.
As expected, it's hybrids in Japan.
Numbers like this don't lie.
They should really stop the EV subsidies.
Countries all over the world are starting to end theirs too.
Don't be so cherry-picking with how you frame it lol
The unit counts are on a completely different scale.
France's Renault swings to profit in H1 on strong EV sales (July 30, 2026)
https://jp.reuters.com/economy/2I6EWCYQE5K7TANSOWGCWFWS54-2026-07-30/
> French automaker Renault's first-half earnings, announced on the 29th, showed revenue up 9.4% year-on-year to €30.25 billion, beating the average forecast of €29.4 billion from 21 analysts.
> Strong electric vehicle (EV) sales contributed, even as price pressure from rivals and emerging Chinese makers intensified across Europe.
> Driven by the success of the new compact "Renault 5," EV sales volume rose 47.6% year-on-year.
> One in every five new cars sold was an EV.
EVs are doing well in France too.
Toyota's struggling, down year-on-year.
https://image-tm.s2mr.jp/i/original/1791504646165.jpeg
Background and Key Points of This Debate
The EV subsidy operates under the government’s “Clean Energy Vehicle Introduction Promotion Subsidy” framework, which pays out per vehicle based on model and performance — it isn’t designed to narrowly exclude manufacturers from any specific country. As pointed out in the thread, restricting it to domestic cars is hard to adopt because of the risk of inviting trade retaliation. The reason Tesla receives such a large share owes partly to having many models that fall within the eligible price range, and largely to having built out a nationwide fast-charging network early on. It’s also easy to overlook that the gasoline subsidy, often brought up for comparison, runs into the trillions of yen annually — an entirely different order of magnitude from the EV subsidy. The thread showed a clear divide between EV-promotion advocates and those favoring PHEVs and gasoline cars, but there were also persistent calls questioning the design of the promotion policy itself, including the fragmented charging standards and region-by-region delivery capacity.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Flash+) thread “[EV Subsidy] Budget 90% Spent at Mid-Fiscal-Year — Tesla Benefits More Than Nissan or Honda.”
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