Luxgen Motor Co Ltd (納智捷) yesterday launched its first subcompact crossover SUV model.
Luxgen — a Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車) brand — said that new model U5 is equipped with augmented-reality (AR) technology and has six camera lenses to help eliminate blind spots.
“The U5’s safety equipment is very diversified,” Luxgen president Tsay Wen-rong (蔡文榮) said at a launch event for the model, citing systems of electronic stability control and traction control.
The model has passed the frontal and side collision test based on Taiwan’s vehicle safety regulation in Spain, despite that Luxgen does not sell U5 cars in Europe, a company official said by telephone, adding that the performance was much better than expected.
The test was conducted by IDIADA, a vehicle crash test lab authorized by Taiwan’s Vehicle Safety Certification Center (VSCC), Luxgen said.
IDIADA is also one of the seven official test house of Euro NCAP, a European car safety performance assessment programme that rates cars sold in the EU market through a series of vehicle tests.
With the U5 priced between NT$659,000 and NT$789,000 (US$21,870.44 and US$26184.8), lower than its rivals, Luxgen has received more than 1,500 preorders since last month, Tsay said.
The better-than-expected demand could help the company reach its sales target of 18,000 cars in Taiwan and China this year, Luxgen said.
Over the first eight months of this year, Luxgen sold 8,800 cars in Taiwan.
It declined to give a number for its sales in China, but said it would introduce the U5 to China next month.
The U5 launch is part of the company’s mid-term plan to introduce 10 new models over the coming five years, Luxgen said.
Yulon’s board in June approved a plan to set up a sales firm in China for 600 million yuan (US$91.11 million) to take full control of Luxgen’s marketing business in that nation, according to the company’s filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange at the time.
Dongfeng Yulon Motor Co (東風裕隆), Yulon’s joint venture with China’s Dongfeng Automobile Co (東風汽車), has been responsible for selling and manufacturing Luxgen cars in China, but it will focus solely on manufacturing in the future, Yulon said.
Luxgen introduced an upgraded version of U6 compact crossover in the first half of this year, and Yulon hopes the launches of the two new Luxgen models will boost its sales and earnings.
From January through last month, Yulon reported that cumulative revenue declined 15.54 percent from a year ago to NT$63.25 billion, mainly due to fierce competition in the Chinese market.
This story has been updated since it was first published.
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