Sales of New Cars in Taiwan Hit 10-year High in June

New-car sales in Taiwan surged in June to a monthly volume of more than 40,000 units, a 10-year high, thanks mainly to automakers offering preferential incentives.

A total of  40,189 new cars were sold in Taiwan during June, up 23.4% year-on-year (YoY) and far outstripping original market expectation of about 36,000 units, according to statistics compiled by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC). Industry experts said that new-car sales in Taiwan have been surprising almost every month this year, forecasting the July volume to hit some 45,000 units.
 

M.H. Huang, assistant V.P. of Hotai Motor Co. Ltd., local agent of Toyota cars and No. 1 auto vendor in Taiwan for more than 10 years, said that new-car sales volume outstripping 40,000 in June was last seen in 2005, when the overall domestic automobile market hit the second-highest annual record of 516,000 units. The high volume in this June, Huang analyzed, implies that a 10-year replacement purchase peak will be seen this year.

The assistant V.P. attributes Hotai's high sales volume in June to the preferential purchase incentives equaling more than NT$80,000 (US$2,667), forcing other auto vendors to adopt similar measures. On the other hand, he added, many auto vendors have been aggressively launching new models over the past few months, effectively stimulating consumer demand. For auto distributors, the assistant V.P. further explained, June is an important period for calculating distributors' sales bonus for the second quarter and the first half of a year. All these factors, he said, lead to the rapid surge of new-car sales in Taiwan in June. On the other hand, industry insiders said, many auto distributors handed out their orders in June to get higher bonus from automakers and importers.

Hotai achieved sales of 13,321 new cars in June, representing a market share of 33.1%, and continued to extend  its lead over counterparts. Sales of its major product model, the Toyota Corola Altis sedan, hit 4,416 units, and accumulated volume in the past four months was 16,500 units, making it the most popular single car. In addition, sales of the Toyota Vios sub-compact sedan, which was launched just in early April, also hit 1,800 units. In conjunction with the arrival of the imported Toyota RAV4 sport utility vehicle (SUV) model, some 1,600 RAVs were delivered in June to long-waiting buyers.

The No. 2 auto seller Yulon Nissan Motor Co., local agent of Nissan cars, enjoyed a 25% YoY sales-volume growth in June by delivering 4,962 new cars, driven by incentives as zero-interest loan and other flexible-payment options. Single-month sales volumes of the company's three major models, Nissan Sentra, Tiida and Livina, all outstripped 1,100 units.

Thanks to smooth sales of its restyled CR-V SUV, Honda Taiwan Motor Co., local assembler and vendor of Hondas, returned to the No. 4 position by selling 2,262 units in June, yet showing a 3.3% YoY decrease.

Ford Lio Ho Motor Co., the local subsidiary of Ford U.S., ramped up its supply of locally assembled Ford Focus sedans and effectively scored sales volume of 2,176 units in June, the second-highest monthly volume this year.

New-car Sales by Top-10 Vendors in Taiwan (June 2014)
Vendor/Brand	March Volume	Market Share	YoY	Jan.-June Volume
Hotai Motor / Toyota	13,321	33.1%	21.2%	67,519
Yulon Nissan / Nissan	4,962	12.3%	35.0%	25,538
CMC / Mitsubishi	4,440	11.0%	18.1%	22,889
Honda Taiwan / Honda	2,262	5.6%	-3.3%	10,960
Ford Lio Ho Co. / Ford	2,176	5.4%	13.1%	12,019
M-B Taiwan / Mercedes-Benz	1,622	4.0%	13.7%	9,270
Sanyang / Hyundai	1,615	4.0%	38.5%	7,780
Luxgen Motor / LUXGEN	1,591	4.0%	172.4%	9,873
Taikoo / Volkswagen	1,472	3.7%	33.0%	6,444
Pan German / BMW	1,417	3.5%	29.1%	7,451
Overall Market	40,189	100%	7.3%	210,554
Source: MOTC