New-car Sales in Taiwan up 6.6% in Oct.

Driven mainly by sales increase of imported cars again, overall new-car sales in Taiwan climbed 6.6% year-on-year (YoY) in October to 34,327 units, but down 1.2% from 34,746 units in the previous month, according to statistics compiled by Taiwan's Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC).

Three of the top-five auto brands, all of which sell mainly locally assembled vehicles, saw month-on-month (MoM) shipment drops, a rare phenomenon. Many imported brands, driving H2 sales in Taiwan, enjoyed sales gains in October. Imported cars have won  over-30% market share in the past three straight months, also rarely seen in the domestic market.

The top-two import brands in Taiwan, Mercedes-Benz and BMW, retained YoY sales increases of 4.0% and 22.9%, respectively, in October; while Volkswagen (VW) saw 82.5% YoY sales increase in the month due to inventory clearance. The German automaker has set up a fully owned Taiwanese subsidiary to start up early 2015, and the  current distributor is clearing  inventory by providing incentives.

Many auto vendors forecast slowing Q4 new-car sales due to the uncertainties from the combined political elections in year-end, with most believing overall new-car sales in Taiwan to hit a nine-year high exceeding 410,000 units in 2014.

Hotai Motor Co. Ltd., local agent of Toyota and a major vendor in Taiwan, retained its lead in October by selling 11,531 new cars, a 6.2% YoY increase to take market share of 33.6%. China Motor Corp. (CMC), in partnership with Mitsubishi, overtook its affiliate Yulon Nissan Motor Co. (Nissan brand), to take the No. 2 by a minor volume lead of less than 200 units, by selling 3,421 units, down 4.5% YoY. Yulon Nissan delivered 3,255 new cars, a 8.3% YoY drop.

Driven by launch of the New Honda Fit subcompact, Honda Taiwan Motor Co. sold 2,451 new cars, up 33.6% YoY to take market share of 9.5% to return to the No. 4. Ford Lio Ho Motor Co.'s (Ford brand) October sales fell 19.1% YoY due to shortage of some models will  shift from local production to importing.

Top-10 Car Vendors' Sales in Taiwan (Jan.-Oct., 2014)
Vendor/Brand	Oct. Volume	YoY	Share	Jan.-Oct. Volume
Hotai Motor / Toyota	11,531	6.2%	33.6%	113,261
CMC / Mitsubishi	3,421	-4.5%	10.0%	37,041
Yulon Nissan / Nissan	3,255	-8.3%	9.5%	39,776
Honda Taiwan / Honda	2,451	33.6%	7.1%	19,009
Ford Lio Ho Co. / Ford	1,912	-19.1%	5.6%	19,869
M-B Taiwan / Mercedes-Benz	1,699	4.0%	4.9%	15,760
Pan German/ BMW	1,630	22.9%	4.7%	13,229
Taikoo / Volkswagen	1,347	82.5%	3.9%	11,250
Sanyang / Hyundai	1,226	1.9%	3.6%	13,070
Luxgen / LUXGEN	1,109	98.0%	3.2%	14,574
Overall	34,327	6.6%	100%	348,083
Source: MOTC