Domestic car sales dropped 16.7 percent to 27,472 units last month from 32,980 units a year ago as consumers expect price decreases amid the continued depreciation of the yen, the latest industrial data showed yesterday.
The shrinking car market last month dragged down total car sales in the first quarter of this year to 90,287 units, down 5.7 percent from 95,433 a year ago, according to statistics compiled by the data communication branch of Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信).
Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), which distributes Toyota and Lexus models, led the market last month by distributing 7,978 cars. However, its market share declined from 41.5 percent in February to 29 percent last month, data showed.
“We tried to push up [our] sales numbers in February by taking fewer days off than our competitors, and last month we returned to our normal schedule and pace,” Hotai deputy spokesman Yu Shiao-chung (喻曉忠) said by telephone yesterday.
However, customers are waiting for prices to decline as many Japanese car distributors have been asked to lower their prices by the government, making sales slightly lower than Hotai expected, Yu said.
Yu expected the market in the second half of this year to be better than last year because of more new car launches and promotions.
For the whole of this year, Hotai forecast that total sales in Taiwan will be 370,000 units, slightly better than the 365,871 recorded last year, he added.
China Motor Corp (CMC, 中華汽車), the local manufacturer of Mitsubishi cars, sold 3,749 vehicles last month and had a market share of 13.6 percent, while Nissan and Infiniti car distributor Yulon Nissan Motor Co (裕隆日產) sold 3,270 cars last month and had a market share of 11.9 percent.
In related news, four trade shows for motor vehicles and auto parts in Taipei next month will showcase Taiwan’s strengths in information and communications technology, and its advances in electric vehicle development, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) said yesterday.
The Taipei International Auto Parts and Accessories Show and the Taipei International Automobile Electronics Show are to be combined for the first time with the Taiwan International Motorcycle Show and the Taiwan International Electric Vehicle Show.
“The four-in-one motoring hub will not only serve as a great opportunity to boost exports for local manufacturers, but also provide a one-stop shopping service for visitors,” TAITRA president and CEO Chao Yuen-chuan (趙永全) said.
About 1,350 domestic and international exhibitors are to showcase products ranging from fuel-saving tires and on-board diagnostic gadgets to the latest electric cars and scooters, he said.
“Electric vehicles will take more market share worldwide over the next decade,” Chao said, predicting that electric vehicles would have a 9 percent share of the global automotive market in 2015, up from 1.5 percent in 2010.
By 2020, 21 million of an estimated 130 million new vehicles sold, or 16 percent, would be run on electric power, he said.
More than 60,000 visitors are expected to attend the fair, which is expected to generate more than NT$100 million (US$3.35 million) in business, the organizers said.
The fair is to be held between Wednesday and Saturday next week at the Taipei World Trade Center and at the Taipei World Trade Center’s Nangang Exhibition Hall.
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
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day