The nation’s new car sales edged down 0.64 percent annually to 27,174 units last month, online market researcher U-Car.com said in a report yesterday.
On a monthly basis, sales dropped 46.89 percent from 51,170 units.
Capital Investment Management Corp (群益投顧) attributed the decline to a higher comparison base in January when sales of Toyota Corolla Cross sports utility vehicles (SUVs) surged and consumers rushed to buy vehicles amid concerns of an auto shortage, as well as the timing of the Lunar New Year holiday, which was in January last year, but February this year.
Photo courtesy of Honda Taiwan Co
During the first two months of this year, new car sales grew 17.4 percent annually to 78,353 units, data showed.
Imported car vendors outperformed the overall auto market last month, thanks to the arrival of new vehicles, the U-car report said.
Mazda Motor Taiwan (馬自達) saw its sales surge 59.8 percent to 1,579 units last month. That was the biggest expansion among imported car vendors and enabled the company to take a market share of 5.8 percent.
Mercedes-Benz Taiwan Ltd’s (台灣賓士) sales grew 23.1 percent to 2,325 units, boosting the luxury vehicle importer’s market share to 8.6 percent from 6.2 percent in January.
Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), which distributes Toyota and Lexus vehicles, sold 7,718 vehicles last month, down 12 percent from a year earlier and 61 percent from January.
The decline brought Hotai’s market share down to 28.4 percent, compared with 39 percent a month earlier.
However, the Corolla Cross SUV remained the best-selling vehicle last month with 2,205 units sold, followed by the Honda CR-V SUV with 1,402 units and the Toyota RAV4 SUV with 1,214 units, the report said.
Yulon Nissan Motor Co (裕隆日產) reported sales of 2,154 units last month and a market share of 6.9 percent, Honda Taiwan Co (台灣本田) posted sales of 1,779 units and a 6.5 percent market share, and Ford Lio Ho Motor Co’s (福特六和) sales grew 29.4 percent to 1,630 units for a market share of 6 percent, it said.
As global auto supply chains continue to face a shortage of key components, particularly auto chips, securing components has become a major concern for automakers and distributors, U-Car said.
"It is estimated that in the first quarter, Taiwan's auto market will show high sales initially but trend lower later. But even if sales are depressed by the shortage of auto chips in the first half of the year, the market is expected to quickly return to normal in the second half of the year after the shortage issue is resolved," Capital analyst Austin Chen (陳執中) said in a note.
Chen said the Executive Yuan's proposal to extend a tax break for another five years until 2026 is similar to the previous program in order to encourage consumers to replace old vehicles with new ones.
As some people had already purchased new vehicles last year, the new program would have less effect in stimulating the market and Taiwan’s auto sales this year might fall 1.86 percent from last year to about 448,900 units.
This story has been updated since it was first published.
DIVIDED VIEWS: Although the Fed agreed on holding rates steady, some officials see no rate cuts for this year, while 10 policymakers foresee two or more cuts There are a lot of unknowns about the outlook for the economy and interest rates, but US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled at least one thing seems certain: Higher prices are coming. Fed policymakers voted unanimously to hold interest rates steady at a range of 4.25 percent to 4.50 percent for a fourth straight meeting on Wednesday, as they await clarity on whether tariffs would leave a one-time or more lasting mark on inflation. Powell said it is still unclear how much of the bill would fall on the shoulders of consumers, but he expects to learn more about tariffs
NOT JUSTIFIED: The bank’s governor said there would only be a rate cut if inflation falls below 1.5% and economic conditions deteriorate, which have not been detected The central bank yesterday kept its key interest rates unchanged for a fifth consecutive quarter, aligning with market expectations, while slightly lowering its inflation outlook amid signs of cooling price pressures. The move came after the US Federal Reserve held rates steady overnight, despite pressure from US President Donald Trump to cut borrowing costs. Central bank board members unanimously voted to maintain the discount rate at 2 percent, the secured loan rate at 2.375 percent and the overnight lending rate at 4.25 percent. “We consider the policy decision appropriate, although it suggests tightening leaning after factoring in slackening inflation and stable GDP growth,”
Meta Platforms Inc offered US$100 million bonuses to OpenAI employees in an unsuccessful bid to poach the ChatGPT maker’s talent and strengthen its own generative artificial intelligence (AI) teams, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said. Facebook’s parent company — a competitor of OpenAI — also offered “giant” annual salaries exceeding US$100 million to OpenAI staffers, Altman said in an interview on the Uncapped with Jack Altman podcast released on Tuesday. “It is crazy,” Sam Altman told his brother Jack in the interview. “I’m really happy that at least so far none of our best people have decided to take them
As they zigzagged from one machine to another in the searing African sun, the workers were covered in black soot. However, the charcoal they were making is known as “green,” and backers hope it can save impoverished Chad from rampant deforestation. Chad, a vast, landlocked country of 19 million people perched at the crossroads of north and central Africa, is steadily turning to desert. It has lost more than 90 percent of its forest cover since the 1970s, hit by climate change and overexploitation of trees for household uses such as cooking, officials say. “Green charcoal” aims to protect what
RSS