In view of plunging automobile sales, car makers are gearing up to secure market share by reducing prices for newly launched vehicles.
Mazda Taiwan, the nation's fifth-largest automaker, cut prices for its small-sized Mazda Genki sedans by NT$10,000 (US$308).
"Compared with the current versions, the newly revamped Genki comes with refined equipment worth NT$16,000. But we slashed our target price to attract buyers," chief executive Jason Liu (劉宗信) told reporters on the sidelines of the car's launch yesterday.
Sedans
Targeted at first-time buyers and fresh graduates, the 1.6 liter Genki retails for NT$485,000, while the hatchback version is priced at NT$495,000.
Yulon Nissan Motor Co (
The company is selling the 1.6-liter model for NT$499,000, much lower than the NT$530,000 price the market had speculated it would sell for.
The companies' moves reflect an eagerness to safeguard market share in the face of a bleak outlook for car sales.
Domestic decline
From Jan. 1 to June 10, domestic car sales plunged 24.7 percent from a year earlier to 181,387 units, according to the latest statistics compiled by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.
An unstable political situation and rising consumer bad debts, due to credit and cash-card abuse, have reduced consumer spending on new cars.
Yulon Nissan and Ford Lio Ho Motor Co (福特六和) saw sales decline 37.8 percent and 39.9 percent respectively up to June 10, according to the ministry's data.
But smaller rivals Mazda Taiwan and Honda Taiwan Co are doing somewhat better.
Mazda Taiwan had sold 13,908 cars this year as of June 10, an 11.3 percent decline over the same period last year, while Honda Taiwan's sales only decreased 2.3 percent to 9,892 units.
Lower expectations
Yulon Nissan's president Jack Wu (
The company said in January it intended to sell 70,000 units for the whole year.
Expecting that car sales will hover at 400,000 units this year -- compared with 514,626 units last year -- Mazda Taiwan is confident of securing a market share of above 7 percent, up from 5.8 percent last year.
The company's launch of its Mazda 5 recreational vehicles last November and stable sales of Mazda 3 sedans, will help secure its position, general marketing manager Frank Wang (王偉明) said.
SPEED OF LIGHT: US lawmakers urged the commerce department to examine the national security threats from China’s development of silicon photonics technology US President Joe Biden’s administration on Monday said it is finalizing rules that would limit US investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and other technology sectors in China that could threaten US national security. The rules, which were proposed in June by the US Department of the Treasury, were directed by an executive order signed by Biden in August last year covering three key sectors: semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies and certain AI systems. The rules are to take effect on Jan. 2 next year and would be overseen by the Treasury’s newly created Office of Global Transactions. The Treasury said the “narrow
SPECULATION: The central bank cut the loan-to-value ratio for mortgages on second homes by 10 percent and denied grace periods to prevent a real-estate bubble The central bank’s board members in September agreed to tighten lending terms to induce a soft landing in the housing market, although some raised doubts that they would achieve the intended effect, the meeting’s minutes released yesterday showed. The central bank on Sept. 18 introduced harsher loan restrictions for mortgages across Taiwan in the hope of curbing housing speculation and hoarding that could create a bubble and threaten the financial system’s stability. Toward the aim, it cut the loan-to-value ratio by 10 percent for second and subsequent home mortgages and denied grace periods for first mortgages if applicants already owned other residential
SPECIALIZIATION: OpenAI is designing a new type of semiconductor with Broadcom that would run artificial intelligence software and respond to user requests OpenAI is working with Broadcom Inc to develop a new artificial intelligence (AI) chip specifically focused on running AI models after they have been trained, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The AI start-up and chipmaker are also consulting with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest chip contract manufacturer, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. OpenAI has been planning a custom chip and working on such uses for the technology for about a year, but the discussions are still at an early stage, the sources said. OpenAI declined
RAPID GROWTH: MediaTek said that it expects revenue from its flagship smartphone chip to grow by 70 percent, driven by demand for artificial intelligence applications Smartphone chip designer Media-Tek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said that it would perform better than the seasonal pattern with revenue forecast to grow 2 percent quarterly, thanks to robust demand for its new flagship smartphone chip that enables PC-like artificial intelligence (AI) features on phones. The strong demand for the new Dimensity 9400 chip this year prompted MediaTek to raise its flagship smartphone chip revenue growth to 70 percent year-on-year, up from of an earlier estimate of 50 percent growth. “For the fourth quarter, the strong ramp of Dimensity 9400 is expected to offset the lower seasonal demand for the mainstream