Japan to Offer Clean Automotive Incentives

Japan will look to introduce incentives for the fiscal year starting July 2009, for consumers looking to buy clean diesel cars, in an attempt to reduce the countries carbon dioxide emissions. Such an incentive will hopefully not only push consumers into buying cleaner cars, but hopefully push manufacturers into building them as well.

According to an official from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), further details will be clarified and confirmed over the rest of 2008, for a hopeful introduction in April of 09.

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Those cars that will come under the incentives banner are diesel-engine cars that make it past tighter regulations on emissions of nitrogen oxide and particulate matter. These regulations are likely to be introduced in October of 2009.

But manufacturers are already beginning to roll out cars that comply to the future regulations. Nissan Motor Company will next month release the X-Trail sport utility vehicle which, according to a company press release, will employ “…advanced technologies to deliver high torque and powerful acceleration, in addition to improved fuel-economy while meeting the demands for cleaner emission standards globally.”

But Nissan aren’t the only ones gearing up for the new regulations. Honda Motor, Mitsubishi Motors and Subaru-maker Fuji Heavy Industries have all promised diesel cars for Japan that should begin to roll out over the next year or so.

The METI official noted that these cars are expected to see a premium of about $2,700-$3,600 USD on the cars (about 300,000 to 400,000 yen), of which part of that will be subsidized.

This isn’t the first time that Japan has helped out their citizens trying to stay green either. For the first nine years that hybrid cars were introduced, the Japanese government offered a similar consumer incentive.

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