Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), which distributes both Toyota and Lexus models in Taiwan, yesterday announced it would join the local sport utility vehicle (SUV) market in an attempt to expand its market share.
Hotai Motor introduced the new Toyota RAV4 SUV models, priced between NT$845,000 and NT$1,150,000 (US$26,800 to US$36,500) to be imported from Japan.
“The launch of RAV4 will not only help increase our product variety, but also undeniably give a shot of adrenaline to the local automobile market and Toyota’s sales this year,” Hotai Motor president Daniel Chang (張重彥), said at a press conference.
PHOTO: KAO CHIA-HE, TAIPEI TIMES
New car sales statistics provided by Hotai Motor and the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) showed that Hotai Motor ranked No. 1 with a total of 55,229 Toyota and Lexus automobiles sold from January to Aug. 20, a market share of 34.7 percent.
Despite this, Hotai Motor’s sales figure plunged 24.7 percent from a year earlier. The decline in the lackluster Taiwan auto market was 28.2 percent year-on-year to 159,007 units as of Aug. 20.
“The Taiwan auto market has declined sharply for three consecutive years, however, the SUV market share has steadily remained above 11 percent because of the introduction of new models, which shows that local consumers’ willingness to purchase SUVs have not been affected by high oil prices,” vice president of the vehicles operations group at Hotai Motor, Justin Su (蘇純興), said yesterday.
Hotai Motor aims to sell 500 RAV4 SUVs per month in Taiwan, and reach a market share of between one-third and one-quarter in the local SUV market, Su said.
Because of the impact of the US subprime crisis and high oil prices, Chang said the local auto market will not recover until next year and new car sales in the second half of this year will be even worse than the first half.
New car sales of both domestic and imported models in Taiwan are expected to be around 230,000 units this year and 260,000 units next year, Chang said.
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