Taiwan's new-car sales rose more than 20 percent last month from a year earlier, due to strong market demand amid a recovering economic climate, government statistics showed yesterday.
The increase was also due to consumers' speeding up purchases to avoid an anticipated price hike by automakers as well as strong replacement demand, said Steven Yang (楊湘泉), spokesman for Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), a domestic dealer for Japan's Toyota Motor Co.
To reflect a strengthening yen, both China Motors Corp (
The nation's fourth-largest automaker, Ford Lio Ho Motor Co (
The number of locally made vehicles applying for license plates, an indicator of new vehicle sales, increased 21.4 percent to 43,063 units last month, according to the latest statistics by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.
Kuozui Motors Ltd (國瑞汽車), the nation's second-largest automaker, which assembles Toyotas, led sales with 10,407 units, up 37.8 percent from the same period last year. China Motors was the runner-up with 9,147 units last month, up 45.7 percent from a year ago.
Yulon Motor registered a year-on-year decline of 26.4 percent with 6,578 units last month, while Ford Lio Ho was the fourth with 4,598 units sold, up 11.4 percent from a year earlier.
Honda Taiwan Co (
Taiwan's new-car market is projected to rise by 7 percent to 440,000 vehicles this year, Hu Kai-chang (
But according to industry sources, carmakers and other forecasters may have to revise their outlook upward to around 500,000 units this year, an eight-year high, if the post-election political uncertainties cease to weigh on the car market.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
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