New vehicle sales in Taiwan last month dipped 11.7 percent year-on-year to 24,278 units, but still beat market expectations, as falling COVID-19 infections offset the effects of a global chip crunch and port congestion, Motor Vehicles Office data showed.
The figure represented a 40.2 percent decline from January due to seasonal factors and fewer working days.
Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), which distributes Toyota and Lexus vehicles in Taiwan, had expected new vehicle sales in Taiwan to reach 21,000 units last month.
“The improvement of COVID-19 infections in Taiwan helped lift vehicle sales in February, indicating that domestic demand remains robust,” Hotai spokesman Simon
Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), the local sales agent of Toyota and Lexus vehicles, expects its sales to rise about 5 percent this year to reach another historical high by introducing more models, including Toyota’s first all-electric sports utility vehicle dubbed the bZ4X.
Hotai said that it is also striving to bring luxury brand Lexus’ RZ 450e crossover to Taiwan, a company statement said yesterday.
Hotai is aiming to sell 164,000 vehicles this year 155,000 sedans and crossovers, and 9,000 commercial vehicles it said in the statement.
Commercial vehicle sales are expected to fall this year from last year’s 9,422 units, due
New vehicle sales in Taiwan plunged 20.6 percent year-on-year to 40,624 units last month, as a global chip shortage continued to take its toll on vehicle sales, statistics released by the Motor Vehicles Office showed.
The figure was lower than an estimate of 44,000 units by Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), the nation’s biggest vehicle distributor.
On a monthly basis, vehicle sales edged up 0.8 percent from 40,307 units in December.
As the chip crunch continues to be a major issue, Hotai expects new vehicle sales this month to dip by about 23 percent year-on-year to 21,000 units.
Fewer working days due to
Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), which distributes Toyota and Lexus vehicles in Taiwan, has hiked prices for domestically made vehicles by up to NT$20,000 to reflect rising manufacturing costs amid surges in prices for raw materials, from rubber polymers used in tire manufacturing to steel.
The move is expected to precede a series of price hikes, probably after the Lunar New Year holidays, as almost all vehicle distributors and local automakers are under mounting pressure to pass on higher manufacturing costs to buyers.
“We have seen constant price hikes for steel, alumina and rubber polymers,” Hotai spokesman Simon Liu (劉松山) told the Taipei
Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), which distributes luxury Lexus brand vehicles in Taiwan, aims to sell 10,000 of the new Lexus crossover sport utility vehicles (SUVs) next year, given a surprisingly high number of preorders for the models, which come with either a gasoline or hybrid engine, it said yesterday.
Hotai said it has since the middle of last month received more than 3,000 orders for the revamped NX series vehicles, almost tripling the orders it received in 2017 for the previous models.
Toyota Motor Corp first sold the NX series in Taiwan in 2014.
“We are surprised by the strong preordering,” Hotai president