Mercedes-Benz Taiwan, the largest luxury car distributor in the nation, expects sales to grow more than 15 percent this year on the back of strong sales of its lower-priced new models.
“So far this year our sales had grown about 15 percent, which is phenomenal,” company president Eckart Mayer said at a press conference for the launch of CLA-class four-door compacts on Wednesday.
“With a lot of new models coming, we are confident that the second half of this year should be better than the start of this year,” he said.
Although the passenger car market in Taiwan dropped 3.8 percent in the first five months of this year to 149,748 units, the luxury car segment grew 9.2 percent to 20,585 units, which Mayer attributed to the introduction of compact models and customers becoming more brand conscious about premium cars.
From January through last month, Mercedes-Benz Taiwan distributed 6,371 cars, up 14.5 percent from 5,564 cars a year ago, according to the latest industry data.
The company saw its share of the luxury car market rise to 30.9 percent in the first five months from 27.3 percent last year, ahead of BMW Taiwan, which had a 24.9 percent share, the data showed.
Kim Lin (林家慶), Mercedes-Benz Taiwan senior public relations manager, said the growth was due to strong sales of A-class and B-class models, which are compacts priced between NT$1.4 million and NT$1.5 million (US$47,000 to US$50,300) targeted at young people.
B-class models were introduced in March last year, followed by the launch of A-class cars in November.
The company sold 739 A-class and 674 B-class cars from January through last month, accounting for 22.18 percent of total units sold, statistics showed.
The company hopes the introduction of CLA-class cars, priced between NT$2 million and NT$2.2 million, will help expand its customer base to younger people.
“When new customers start driving our cars, we are confident that they will not shift to other brands,” Lin said.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure