New vehicle sales grew at an annual pace of 15.9 percent last month, due to stable economic growth and new model launches against a decline in global auto sales due to chip shortages, online market researcher U-Car.com said in a report on Thursday.
New vehicle sales climbed to 43,000 units last month, the best figure for March in 16 years. It also represented a 59 percent increase from 27,174 units in February, according to the report.
In the January-to-March quarter, total new vehicle sales rose 16.85 percent to 121,575 units, compared with 104,046 vehicles a year earlier, the report said.
Photo: Amy Yang, Taipei Times
“As the government has adequately contained the spread of COVID-19, the nation’s economy and consumer consumption have been less affected by global uncertainties, but show robust growth. The latest new car sales are evidence of that,” the report said.
Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), which distributes Toyota and Lexus vehicles, sold 14,066 vehicles last month, surging 82 percent from 7,718 units in February.
The growth was due to strong sales of Toyota Corolla Cross sports utility vehicles (SUV), with 4,142 units sold, making it the best-selling vehicle last month, the report said.
The Toyota RAV4 SUV followed with 2,193 units sold, almost doubling its 1,214 units sold in the previous month and outselling Honda CR-V’s 1,896 units, the report said.
The Honda CR-V ranked No. 2 among the top 10 best-selling vehicles in February.
Hotai’s market share climbed to 32.5 percent from 28.4 percent, to hold on to its leading market position.
Honda Taiwan Co (台灣本田) followed with a market share of 7.2 percent, with vehicle sales increasing 76.1 percent month-on-month to 3,132 units, while Yulon Nissan Motor Co’s (裕隆日產) market share was 7 percent, with sales rising 39.6 percent to 3,008 units.
Mercedes-Benz Taiwan Ltd’s (台灣賓士) sales grew about 22.5 percent to 2,856 units, but the luxury vehicle importer’s market share fell to 6.6 percent from 8.6 percent in February.
Ford Lio Ho Motor Co’s (福特六和) sales soared 64 percent as it sold 2,670 units last month to grab a market share of 6.2 percent, the report said.
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