Yulon Nissan Motor Co (裕隆日產), the local distributor of Nissan and Infiniti cars, became the second-largest car distributor in the nation last month after it started sales of a new model, the New Sentra passenger car.
Last month saw Yulon Nissan sell a total of 4,904 cars, up 38.1 percent from a month ago and 73.4 percent from a year ago, according to statistics compiled by Chunghwa Telecom Co’s (中華電信) data communication branch.
Yulon Nissan’s market share increased to 14.1 percent last month from 11 percent in October, overtaking China Motor Corp (中華汽車) and second only to Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), data showed.
Yulon Nissan sold 1,765 New Sentra cars last month, accounting for 35.99 percent of the company’s car sales for the month, data showed.
“However, sales volumes of the New Sentra are unlikely to remain at this level this month, because we do not have the capacity to make so many cars in a month,” company vice president Leman Lee (李振成) said by telephone, adding that the 1,765 cars distributed by Yulon Nissan last month included pre-order sales that started in September.
From January through last month, Yulon Nissan accounted for 11.7 percent of the domestic car market, with sales reaching 39,653 units, up 4.1 percent from the previous year. The company is maintaining its sales target of 43,800 units for this year, Lee said.
Lee forecast that Taiwan’s total car sales next month would decline to 30,000 units, as prospective buyers have a tendency to hold off purchases at the end of the year.
“They think a car bought in 2014 may command a better price in the secondhand car market in the future compared with a car bought in 2013,” Lee said.
Taiwan’s total car sales last month reached 34,702 units, up 7.7 percent from a month ago and 20.8 percent from a year ago. For the first 11 months of the year, total car sales rose 2.4 percent to 339,451 units from a year ago, data showed.
Lee expects Taiwan’s total car sales this year would reach 375,000 units, up from 365,871 units last year as car companies introduce more new models this year.
Hotai, which distributes Toyota and Lexus models, continued to lead the market last month with a 33.8 percent share. Hotai sold 11,733 cars, up 8 percent from a month earlier and 18.4 percent from a year ago, data showed.
Sales of Hotai’s new Corona Altis sedan, which was launched on Oct. 7, reached 3,777 units last month, up 5.7 percent from a month ago. The figure was 30 percent higher than that of its previous version a year ago, data showed.
China Motor, the local manufacturer of Mitsubishi cars, was the third-largest car distributor, with a market share of 9.6 percent last month. The company sold 3,321 cars last month, down 7.3 percent from the previous month and up 6.8 percent from a year earlier, data showed.
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