Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), the leading car distributor in Taiwan, launched the 11th generation of its Corona Altis sedan yesterday, aiming to acquire 60 percent of the market share for cars with engines between 1.6 liters and 2 liters.
Total sales of cars in this segment are 65,000 units a year nationally, accounting for about 17.57 percent of total car sales, Eli Huang (黃明顯), the company’s director and chief officer of Toyota and Hino operations, told reporters.
The previous generation of Altis accounted for 57 percent of the market last year, followed by Honda Taiwan Co’s Civic and Hyundai Taiwan’s Elantra, Huang said.
Photo: Yang Ya-min, Taipei Times
Altis is the nation’s best selling car over the past 12 years, company president Justin Su (蘇純興) said.
Sales of this model account for about 10 percent of Hotai’s sales, he added.
The company aims to sell 12,500 new Altis model, priced between NT$646,000 and NT$769,000 (US$22,000 and US$26,200), by the end of this year and 40,000 units next year, Su said.
Su said the total car sales this year is likely to be more than 370,000 units because of high market sentiment this quarter, with Hotai accounting for 34 percent of the market.
Su said total car sales in the fourth quarter this year may reach 92,500 units as more new cars were launched in the market, such as Ford Lio Ho Motor Co’s (福特六和) Kuga SUV and China Motor Corp’s (中華汽車) subcompact car Colt Plus.
The fourth quarter this year may be the best quarter for Hotai, as there is no longer a shortage of the company’s SUV RAV-4 and Wish minivan, Su said.
“We are likely to distribute 40,000 to 50,000 Toyota cars next quarter,” Hotai spokesman Fred Hsieh (謝富來) said.
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