New car sales in Taiwan dropped more than 2 percent last year from a year earlier amid uncertainty over economic growth in the second half of the year and trade frictions between the US and China, government statistics showed.
Car sales totaled 435,135 units, down 2.1 percent from 2017, although sales of imported cars increased by an annual 6.3 percent to 197,281 units, making up 45.3 percent of the total, the data showed.
Last month alone, car sales rose 16.6 percent from a month earlier to 41,993 units as sellers offered promotions, but the figure was 0.5 percent lower 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 last year, with sales of 120,766 units, a 27.8 percent market share, the data showed.
However, the company recorded a 5.7 percent annual drop in sales due to a halt in production of certain models, the data showed.
China Motor Corp (中華汽車), which markets cars under the Mitsubishi brand, was second with an 11.3 percent market share and sales of 49,204 units, an annual increase of 2 percent.
In third was Honda Taiwan Co (台灣本田), which had an 8.9 percent share and sales of 38,822, up 13.9 percent from a year earlier.
Yulon Nissan Motor Co (裕隆日產), which sells models under the Nissan brand, was fourth, selling 36,708 cars, which accounted for 8.4 percent of total sales in Taiwan.
In a strong showing by imported models, Mercedes-Benz Taiwan Ltd (台灣賓士) was fifth, registering a 4.1 percent annual increase in sales to 29,172 units and a 6.7 percent market share.
It was followed by Mazda Motor Taiwan (台灣馬自達) with sales of 23,724 units and a 5.5 percent market share, Ford Lio Ho Motor Co (福特六和) with sales of 16,701 units and a 3.8 percent share, and Volkswagen AG and BMW AG, each with a 3.7 percent share.
Hyundai Motor Co, the 10th-largest vendor on the local market, registered a 2.7 percent share.
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