New car sales in Taiwan fell 46.7 percent last month from the previous month to 24,215 units after the Lunar New Year shopping season, market statistics showed.
However, the figure was 12.3 percent higher than a year earlier, the data showed.
Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), the local sales agent for Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp, remained the top vehicle vendor in Taiwan, selling 6,048 units last month, down 51.06 percent month-on-month and 7.9 percent year-on-year, the statistics showed.
China Motor Corp (中華汽車), which markets cars under the Mitsubishi brand, rose one spot to second with sales of 3,003 units, a monthly drop of 36.2 percent, but an annual rise of 29 percent, the statistics showed.
Yulon Nissan Motor Co (裕隆日產), which sells cars under the Nissan brand, fell one notch to third place, selling 2,011 units, down 63.1 percent from a month earlier and 14.82 percent from the previous year.
As for imported cars, Mercedes-Benz was the best seller last month with 1,620 units, down 43.3 percent from the previous month, but up 28.3 percent from a year earlier. The figures were higher than fellow German brand BMW, which sold 1,084 cars in Taiwan last month, the statistics showed.
In the first two months of the year, new car sales in Taiwan totaled 69,645 units, up 0.9 percent from a year earlier, the data showed.
Total car sales for this year are forecast to be between 420,000 and 430,000 units, compared with about 440,000 last year, according to estimates by Yulon and Hotai.
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