Scooter sales rose 4.1 percent last month, driven by rising demand from graduating students and Mother’s Day marketing campaigns, statistics showed yesterday.
Sales reached 69,242 units, up from 66,487 in April, and an increase of 0.39 percent over the 68,976 units sold in May last year, data released by Kwang Yang Motor Co (光陽工業) and the Ministry of Transportation and Communications showed.
“Entering the graduation season, demand was fueled mostly by graduating students, who bought new scooters for work or commuting. The effect was even more marked in the middle of May,” said Kwang Yang, the nation’s biggest scooter manufacturer, which sells scooters under its KYMCO brand.
Gasoline-powered scooters took a bigger share, 90.7 percent, of the sales, up from 86.75 percent in April, while sales of electric scooters accounted for 9.3 percent, down from 13.25 percent, mainly due to a major shift in the government’s subsidy policy for new scooter purchases.
Subsidiaries for buying a new scooter to replace one being retired previously applied just to electric models in the past few years, but would now apply to any type.
Sales by electric scooter maker Gogoro Inc (睿能創意) tumbled 28 percent to 5,244 units from April’s 7,296, a decline of 55 percent from the previous year.
Gogoro last week introduced a flat rate of NT$299 a month on new batteries for the first year a buyer of a Gogoro VIVA series scooter owns the model.
Electric scooter sales, including those from Aeon Motor Co (宏佳騰) and Motive Power Industry Co (摩特動力), dropped 26.73 percent to 6,455 units.
Kwang Yang posted the strongest growth, 12 percent and 23,751 units, which is attributable to the launches of new gasoline-powered models that meet the government’s Phase 7 emissions standards.
Kwang Yang said that it expects scooter sales to recover at a faster pace this month as COVID-19 fears ease.
The company aims to expand its market share this month to 36 percent, which would be a new high, up from 34.3 percent last month, chief executive officer Ko Chun-ping (柯俊斌) said in a statement.
Sanyang Motor Co (三陽) came in second place last month by selling 19,524 units to take a 28.2 percent share of the market, while Yamaha Motor Taiwan Co (台灣山葉) was third with 21.5 percent, or 14,915 units.
purpose: Tesla’s CEO sought to meet senior Chinese officials to discuss the rollout of its ‘full self-driving’ software in China and approval to transfer data they had collected Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing yesterday on an unannounced visit, where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of "full self-driving" (FSD) software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Chinese state media reported that he met Premier Li Qiang (李強) in Beijing, during which Li told Musk that Tesla's development in China could be regarded as a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation. Musk confirmed his meeting with the premier yesterday with a post on social media platform X. "Honored to meet with Premier Li
Dutch brewing company Heineken NV on Friday announced an investment of NT$13.5 billion (US$414.62 million) over the next five years in Taiwan. The first multinational brewing company to operate in Taiwan, Heineken made the statement at a ceremony held at its brewery in Pingtung County. It also outlined its efforts to make the brewery “net zero” by 2030. Heineken has been in the Taiwanese market for 20 years, Heineken Taiwan managing director Jeff Wu (吳建甫) said. With strong support from local consumers, the Dutch brewery decided to transition from sales to manufacturing in the country, Wu said. Heineken assumed majority ownership and management rights
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI