New car sales picked up sharply last month from February as promotion campaigns by dealers and the government’s subsidy policy paid off.
New car sales reached 37,589 units last month, indicating a 74.3 percent increase from February’s 21,561 units, according to statistics compiled by Chunghwa Telecom Co’s (中華電信) data communication branch.
Both Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車) and China Motor Corp (CMC, 中華汽車), the nation’s leading car dealers, reported double-digit percentage increases from a year ago.
The increase had much to do with the government stimulus that provides NT$50,000 (US$1,544) in subsidies for new car buyers.
The stimulus, introduced on Jan. 8, requires people to scrap or export used cars and buy a new car within six months to qualify for the subsidy.
Automakers also offered their own subsidies, with some incentives valued at up to NT$130,000.
February’s poor performance was attributed to the Lunar New Year and 228 Memorial Day holidays cutting working days.
There were fewer holiday disruptions last month, allowing new car sales to surge by 20,000 in the last 10 workdays of the month.
In the first quarter of this year, automakers sold 106,627 new cars, down 0.2 percent from the same period last year.
Hotai, which distributes Toyota and Lexus models, reported a sales increase of 13.9 percent last month from a year ago to 11,350 vehicles, helped by its provision of subsidies and low installment fees.
Hotai continued to lead the market with a 30.2 percent market share last month.
China Motor, which sells Mitsubishi sedans and its own CMC commercial models, saw its sales grow 25.3 percent annually and 93.8 percent monthly to 4,512 units last month, outperforming its peers.
China Motor attributed the increase in sales of its flagship commercial model the Veryca, with sales of 1,400 units last month, to the government’s incentive program.
“The subsidy effectively pushed up our car sales,” the company said, as it kept its second-place ranking with a 12 percent market share.
Yulon Nissan Motor Co (裕隆日產), which sells Nissan and Infiniti cars, was in third place, with car sales increasing by 6.1 percent annually and 52.9 percent monthly to 3,611 units last month.
Honda Taiwan Co (台灣本田), which commands a market share of 6.7 percent, saw its sales grow 16.5 percent annually and 63.2 percent monthly to 2,536 cars last month.
Mercedes-Benz Taiwan, one of the largest luxury car distributors in the nation, reported a 12.9 percent annual increase in sales to 2,235 cars last month, 77 percent higher from February.
The company ranked fifth with a market share of 5.9 percent.
Car sales are expected to be flat this month from 34,664 units in the same period last year, as the subsidy and promotion remain in place, but fewer working days and a low sales season could weigh in.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) last week recorded an increase in the number of shareholders to the highest in almost eight months, despite its share price falling 3.38 percent from the previous week, Taiwan Stock Exchange data released on Saturday showed. As of Friday, TSMC had 1.88 million shareholders, the most since the week of April 25 and an increase of 31,870 from the previous week, the data showed. The number of shareholders jumped despite a drop of NT$50 (US$1.59), or 3.38 percent, in TSMC’s share price from a week earlier to NT$1,430, as investors took profits from their earlier gains
In a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, Chinese scientists have built what Washington has spent years trying to prevent: a prototype of a machine capable of producing the cutting-edge semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence (AI), smartphones and weapons central to Western military dominance, Reuters has learned. Completed early this year and undergoing testing, the prototype fills nearly an entire factory floor. It was built by a team of former engineers from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML who reverse-engineered the company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, according to two people with knowledge of the project. EUV machines sit at the heart of a technological Cold
Taiwan’s long-term economic competitiveness will hinge not only on national champions like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) but also on the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies, a US-based scholar has said. At a lecture in Taipei on Tuesday, Jeffrey Ding, assistant professor of political science at the George Washington University and author of "Technology and the Rise of Great Powers," argued that historical experience shows that general-purpose technologies (GPTs) — such as electricity, computers and now AI — shape long-term economic advantages through their diffusion across the broader economy. "What really matters is not who pioneers
TAIWAN VALUE CHAIN: Foxtron is to fully own Luxgen following the transaction and it plans to launch a new electric model, the Foxtron Bria, in Taiwan next year Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車) yesterday said that its board of directors approved the disposal of its electric vehicle (EV) unit, Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷汽車), to Foxtron Vehicle Technologies Co (鴻華先進) for NT$787.6 million (US$24.98 million). Foxtron, a half-half joint venture between Yulon affiliate Hua-Chuang Automobile Information Technical Center Co (華創車電) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), expects to wrap up the deal in the first quarter of next year. Foxtron would fully own Luxgen following the transaction, including five car distributing companies, outlets and all employees. The deal is subject to the approval of the Fair Trade Commission, Foxtron said. “Foxtron will be
RSS