New car sales reached 34,953 units last month, down 7 percent from the previous month and up 0.8 percent from a year earlier, according to statistics compiled by Chunghwa Telecom Co’s (中華電信) data communication branch.
The auto market saw its second consecutive month of growth last month, with China Motor Corp (CMC, 中華汽車), which sells Mitsubishi sedans and its own-brand CMC commercial models, and Nissan Motor Co (裕隆日產), which sells Nissan and Infiniti cars, posting annual increases of 12.2 percent and 16.4 percent respectively.
The two firms secured market shares of 11.2 percent and 10.4 percent respectively in the month.
Mazda Motor Taiwan’s (台灣馬自達) new car sales surged 49.8 percent annually to 2,589 units last month, amid strong demand for popular models such as the CX-5 and Mazda 3, the company said.
Mazda ranked fourth in the local market last month with a 7.6 percent market share.
The nation’s leading car dealer, Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), reported a sales decline of 3.6 percent annually to 10,396 last month. The company, which suffered from a serious shortage of some subcompact models, saw its market share fall below 30 percent last month.
For this month, total car sales are likely rise from last month, as many dealers are to launch new models this week, including Hotai’s Vios and Yaris, Yulon Group’s (裕隆集團) Luxgen, as well as imported brands such as Audi AG and Volkswagen AG’s Caddy Maxi.
In the first four months, overall car sales in Taiwan slightly rose 0.1 percent annually to 141,574 units, data showed.
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