Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), which distributes luxury Lexus brand vehicles in Taiwan, aims to sell 10,000 of the new Lexus crossover sport utility vehicles (SUVs) next year, given a surprisingly high number of preorders for the models, which come with either a gasoline or hybrid engine, it said yesterday.
Hotai said it has since the middle of last month received more than 3,000 orders for the revamped NX series vehicles, almost tripling the orders it received in 2017 for the previous models.
Toyota Motor Corp first sold the NX series in Taiwan in 2014.
Photo: Amy Yang, Taipei Times
“We are surprised by the strong preordering,” Hotai president Justin Su (蘇純興) said on the sidelines of the vehicle launch in Nantou County. “The growing popularity of SUVs in Taiwan helps.”
“We believe there is the potential to sell 10,000 units of the new Lexus NX series, but the supply of chips and other key components could curtail shipments,” he said. “But we are less affected by the chip crunch than others.”
It is likely to take at least three months for Lexus vehicle buyers to receive their cars, Su said.
Pent-up demand and economic growth are expected to push new car sales in Taiwan past 460,000 units next year, up from about 450,000 units this year, Su said.
Even after the impact of supply constraints on chips and other factors, Su said he adjusted upward his forecast from 440,000 units.
Hotai expects sales of its vehicles to grow next year from this year’s target of 145,000 units.
The five Lexus NX models launched yesterday include two hybrid vehicles, as Toyota has set the goal to electrify its lineup.
In September, Hotai introduced the first of its electric vehicles, the Lexus UX 300e.
The new Lexus NX models are priced from NT$1.63 million to NT$2.73 million.
Hotai has cut the prices to between NT$30,000 and NT$60,000 less than the preorder prices.
On Ireland’s blustery western seaboard, researchers are gleefully flying giant kites — not for fun, but in the hope of generating renewable electricity and sparking a “revolution” in wind energy. “We use a kite to capture the wind and a generator at the bottom of it that captures the power,” said Padraic Doherty of Kitepower, the Dutch firm behind the venture. At its test site in operation since September 2023 near the small town of Bangor Erris, the team transports the vast 60-square-meter kite from a hangar across the lunar-like bogland to a generator. The kite is then attached by a
Foxconn Technology Co (鴻準精密), a metal casing supplier owned by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), yesterday announced plans to invest US$1 billion in the US over the next decade as part of its business transformation strategy. The Apple Inc supplier said in a statement that its board approved the investment on Thursday, as part of a transformation strategy focused on precision mold development, smart manufacturing, robotics and advanced automation. The strategy would have a strong emphasis on artificial intelligence (AI), the company added. The company said it aims to build a flexible, intelligent production ecosystem to boost competitiveness and sustainability. Foxconn
Leading Taiwanese bicycle brands Giant Manufacturing Co (巨大機械) and Merida Industry Co (美利達工業) on Sunday said that they have adopted measures to mitigate the impact of the tariff policies of US President Donald Trump’s administration. The US announced at the beginning of this month that it would impose a 20 percent tariff on imported goods made in Taiwan, effective on Thursday last week. The tariff would be added to other pre-existing most-favored-nation duties and industry-specific trade remedy levy, which would bring the overall tariff on Taiwan-made bicycles to between 25.5 percent and 31 percent. However, Giant did not seem too perturbed by the
TARIFF CONCERNS: Semiconductor suppliers are tempering expectations for the traditionally strong third quarter, citing US tariff uncertainty and a stronger NT dollar Several Taiwanese semiconductor suppliers are taking a cautious view of the third quarter — typically a peak season for the industry — citing uncertainty over US tariffs and the stronger New Taiwan dollar. Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科技) said that customers accelerated orders in the first half of the year to avoid potential tariffs threatened by US President Donald Trump’s administration. As a result, it anticipates weaker-than-usual peak-season demand in the third quarter. The US tariff plan, announced on April 2, initially proposed a 32 percent duty on Taiwanese goods. Its implementation was postponed by 90 days to July 9, then
RSS