New car sales picked up sharply last month from February as promotion campaigns by dealers and the government’s subsidy policy paid off.
New car sales reached 37,589 units last month, indicating a 74.3 percent increase from February’s 21,561 units, according to statistics compiled by Chunghwa Telecom Co’s (中華電信) data communication branch.
Both Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車) and China Motor Corp (CMC, 中華汽車), the nation’s leading car dealers, reported double-digit percentage increases from a year ago.
The increase had much to do with the government stimulus that provides NT$50,000 (US$1,544) in subsidies for new car buyers.
The stimulus, introduced on Jan. 8, requires people to scrap or export used cars and buy a new car within six months to qualify for the subsidy.
Automakers also offered their own subsidies, with some incentives valued at up to NT$130,000.
February’s poor performance was attributed to the Lunar New Year and 228 Memorial Day holidays cutting working days.
There were fewer holiday disruptions last month, allowing new car sales to surge by 20,000 in the last 10 workdays of the month.
In the first quarter of this year, automakers sold 106,627 new cars, down 0.2 percent from the same period last year.
Hotai, which distributes Toyota and Lexus models, reported a sales increase of 13.9 percent last month from a year ago to 11,350 vehicles, helped by its provision of subsidies and low installment fees.
Hotai continued to lead the market with a 30.2 percent market share last month.
China Motor, which sells Mitsubishi sedans and its own CMC commercial models, saw its sales grow 25.3 percent annually and 93.8 percent monthly to 4,512 units last month, outperforming its peers.
China Motor attributed the increase in sales of its flagship commercial model the Veryca, with sales of 1,400 units last month, to the government’s incentive program.
“The subsidy effectively pushed up our car sales,” the company said, as it kept its second-place ranking with a 12 percent market share.
Yulon Nissan Motor Co (裕隆日產), which sells Nissan and Infiniti cars, was in third place, with car sales increasing by 6.1 percent annually and 52.9 percent monthly to 3,611 units last month.
Honda Taiwan Co (台灣本田), which commands a market share of 6.7 percent, saw its sales grow 16.5 percent annually and 63.2 percent monthly to 2,536 cars last month.
Mercedes-Benz Taiwan, one of the largest luxury car distributors in the nation, reported a 12.9 percent annual increase in sales to 2,235 cars last month, 77 percent higher from February.
The company ranked fifth with a market share of 5.9 percent.
Car sales are expected to be flat this month from 34,664 units in the same period last year, as the subsidy and promotion remain in place, but fewer working days and a low sales season could weigh in.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
RSS