Automakers promote SUVs as peak season approaches

Eyeing the upcoming peak season this month and next, Ford Lio Ho Motor Co (福特六和), Taiwan's fourth biggest automaker and a distributor of Ford cars, yesterday launched a series of sport utility vehicles (SUV) in an effort to lure customers amid strong competition from rivals and high oil prices, which could take a toll on the SUV market.

"We expect a market size of around 100,000 cars in Taiwan between June and July, before Ghost Month," Ford Lio Ho president Jeffrey Shen (沈英銓) said on the sidelines of a press conference yesterday.

Traditionally, people in Taiwan do not purchase high-price items like cars and houses during Ghost Month, which falls on the seventh month of the lunar calendar, beginning on Aug. 5 this year according to the Gregorian calender. Consequently, auto companies gear up promotional activities ahead of Ghost Month to boost sales.

The estimated sales in the two months alone could make up to 20 percent of Taiwan's overall car market of around 500,000 units this year, up from about 484,000 units last year, Shen said.

Ford Lio Ho yesterday rolled out a special edition of their popular SUV model, the Escape Sahara 2.3 liter, featuring new colors and advanced accessories, with a price tag of NT$879,000 and a limited shipment of 300 units, in an attempt to lure interested SUV buyers.

Ford hopes to market some 3,000 Escape SUVs during the two-month peak season, Ford Lio Ho's SUV brand manager Kevin Liang (梁榮振) said.

Meanwhile, Yulon Nissan Motor Co (裕隆日產), the nation's third largest auto vendor and a distributor of Nissan cars, last week launched a special edition of its X-Trail SUV series, priced from NT$790,000 to NT$1 million per unit, with a limited offering of 800 units.

Yulon Nissan sold 1,372 X-Trail SUVs last month, up from 1,177 units in April, behind Honda Taiwan Co's CR-V, the nation's best-selling SUV with sales of 1,767 units last month, up from 1,487 units the previous month, according to data compiled by the Chinese-language Car News Web site.

Ambitious as Ford Lio Ho is, the company's SUV sales number, however, declined to 1,125 vehicles last month from over 1,300 in April, due to strong competition from its rivals, including the lately revamped Honda CR-V and Hyundai's new SUV Tucson series launched in March, according to the company.

Skyrocketing oil prices have reportedly depressed sales of the Ford Escape by 40 percent in the US, which is a looming concern for the auto vendor.

"We haven't seen any decline in Taiwan's SUV sales so far becasue of rising oil prices," Shen said, adding that sales of recreation vehicles in Taiwan grew by 12,000 units in the first five months of this year compared to last year.

"Yet we will closely monitor how the situation evolves in the future," he said.

To address the issue, Ford Lio Ho plans to introduce hybrid Escape SUVs, priced under NT$2 million per unit, next year, and may also adopt diesel engines for its Focus and Metrostar series in the meantime, Shen said.

The automaker is also planning to locally produce small-size vehicles equipped with 1.3-liter to 1.6-liter engines with cute and fashionable designs, to attract young car buyers in their 20s, the executive said, without giving a timeframe.