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.
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