Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車), one of the nation’s largest vehicle distributors, yesterday said it is to launch a small sports utility vehicle (SUV) under its own-brand Luxgen (納智捷) by the end of next quarter.
“We would also introduce the same model to our Chinese customers,” Yulon president Yao Chen-hsiang (姚振祥) told an investors’ conference in Taipei.
The company said it expects revenue to grow with the launch and has set a target of selling 18,000 Luxgen vehicles domestically this year, up from last year’s 16,440 units.
From January through last month, Luxgen sales in its home market dropped 2.1 percent annually to 4,825 units, while its China sales also plunged 57.1 percent to 6,455 units over the period, the company said.
Yao attributed the sluggish performance in the Chinese market to fierce competition with well-known global brands, despite growing demand for SUVs there.
The company distributes Luxgen vehicles in the Chinese market via Dongfeng Yulon Motor Co (東風裕隆), a joint venture between Yulon Motor and China’s Dongfeng Automobile Co (東風汽車).
“In a bid to reach more potential customers, some of our dealers [in China] have shifted their focus to second and third-tier cities,” he said, but declined to elaborate on the company’s sales target in China.
China’s overall auto market this year is forecast to increase 4.9 percent to 29.4 million units from last year, the company said.
In the first quarter, Yulon’s net income soared 21 percent annually to NT$761 million (US$25.25 million), with earnings per share up to NT$0.52 from NT$0.43 in the same period a year earlier.
Consolidated revenue declined 16 percent to NT$24.79 billion from a year earlier, Yulon data showed.
The increase in earnings was primarily due to profit generated by Taiwan Acceptance Corp (裕融), one of its subsidiaries, which began its vehicle financing business in China last year, the firm said.
Another of the firm’s major units, Yulon Nissan Motor Co (裕隆日產), posted a net profit of NT$1.44 billion in the first three months of the year, a 32.1 percent increase from a year earlier, with sales up 3.8 percent to NT$9.85 billion, data showed.
Yulon is also working on a land development project at an unused factory in New Taipei City’s Xindian District (新店), with construction expected to begin this quarter.
The large residential and commercial project is to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2020, the firm said.
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