Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車), which makes automobiles under the Luxgen brand, yesterday said it is to sign a contract with French electric-vehicle designer Pariss Electric next month, and is to begin manufacturing and shipping Muse electric vehicles in the second half of next year.
Yulon declined to elaborate on the scale of orders, but said it is expected to be larger than orders from Italy’s Adiva, for which it has been manufacturing motorcycles since June.
With Europe adopting stricter laws on fossil-fuel vehicles and e-commerce boosting logistics services, demand for electric vehicles is expected to grow, Yulon Motor said.
Orders from other companies would help mitigate the impact of falling sales and profits in the first half of the year, it said.
Yulon remained conservative about its profit outlook for this year, after vehicle sales shrank by 11,000 units in the first half, spokesman Steven Lo (羅文邑) told an investors’ meeting in Taipei.
The company will continue to evaluate its assets, including vehicle models and molds based on future vehicle sales and book asset impairment, if necessary, Lo said.
The company has sought to broaden its customer base and digest excess capacity, he said.
“Our strength is that we are rich in research experience and can provide total solutions for customers who lack production facilities,” Lo said.
Yulon plans to reduce manufacturing and operating costs by sharing research and production resources with partners, Lo said, adding that the company would slow the design of new vehicles.
The company on Wednesday introduced its new imported Leaf electric vehicles and Altima sedans, and is to release next quarter its Luxgen URX sport utility vehicle, it said.
Vehicles sales in the first eight months of the year dropped 9.7 percent annually to 58,475 units, with Luxgen falling 60.09 percent to 3,059 units, company data showed.
The group’s market share fell 1.1 percent year-on-year to 20.5 percent among domestic vehicles, while its share of the imported vehicle market edged down 0.1 percent to 1.1 percent, the data showed.
As for Yulon Towns (裕隆城), its residential-commercial complex in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店), it has finished constriction of diaphragm walls and piles, and is building the ground floor, the company said.
The company is still reviewing the total number of homes for the complex, as competition in the real-estate market sharpens.
It has not started construction on the residential zone yet, the company said.
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