New electric scooter sales last month plummeted 92.7 percent month-on-month to 2,101 units after local governments decided not to implement new subsidies.
Gogoro Inc (睿能創意) sold 1,487 electric scooters last month, a 93.5 percent plunge from record-high sales of 22,750 scooters in December last year, data obtained by Kwang Yang Motor Co (光陽工業) showed.
Gogoro’s market share slumped to 3.2 percent last month, from 21.27 percent the previous month, the data showed.
“Sales of electric scooters registered explosive growth at the end of 2019 prior to the expiration of the governments’ subsidy programs,” Kwang Yang said in a statement.
“As electric scooter sales are heavily reliant on government subsidies, sales in January were hit by local governments’ unclear stance over subsidies,” Kwang Yang chief executive officer Ko Chun-ping (柯俊斌) said.
Kwang Yang does not expect the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak in China to have any significant impact on the local scooter market, as the market was not affected by the SARS outbreak in 2003.
Total scooter sales in 2003 rose 6.71 percent year-on-year to 668,000 units, from 626,000 units in 2002, Kwang Yang data showed.
The overall scooter market experienced a slow start to the year as consumers took to the sidelines before the presidential and legislative elections, and the Lunar New Year holiday.
Total sales last month more than halved to 46,211 scooters, compared with 106,969 scooters in December last year, data showed.
Last month’s sales at Kwang Yang, the nation’s biggest producer of gasoline-powered scooters, slumped 54.29 percent month-on-month to 15,541 scooters, from 33,997 units in December last year, while its market share climbed to 33.6 percent from 31.8 percent.
Ko blamed insufficient inventory of gasoline-powered models that meet the government’s phase 7 emissions standards for the slump in sales.
Sanyang Motor Co (三陽) sold 13,498 scooters last month, a market share of 29.2 percent.
Yamaha Motor Taiwan Co (台灣山葉) ranked third, selling 11,661 scooters, a 25.2 percent market share.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last