New vehicle sales in Taiwan continued to grow strongly in October 2019, by over 17% to 41,040 units from 35,048 units in the same month of last year, according to local reports citing registration data compiled by the Directorate of Highways.
That followed a 37% year on year rebound in September, which came after a sharp decline in August – when buyers stayed away from showrooms due to the annual ‘ghost month’ – the seventh month after the Lunar New Year.
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Many Taiwanese believe that making major purchases during this four week period brings bad luck for the rest of the year.
Vehicle sales in the first 10 months of the year were just 1.1% lower at 353,207 units, down from 357,132 units in the same period of last year, following a much sharper decline in the first half of the year.
Sales of locally produced vehicles were down 5.2% to 186,171 units in this period while import sales were 3.9% higher at 167,036 units – to account for over 47% of total new vehicle volume.
Toyota increased sales by 14.2% to 96,533 units year to date (YTD), helped by the recent launch of the redesigned Corolla Altis [sedan] – the country’s best-selling model, and also the relatively new RAV4.
Second-placed Yulon Nissan saw its sales increase by 4.7% to 28,485 units; Honda Taiwan slipped to 25,766 units (-18.6%); Mercedes-Benz 23,970 units (-1.9%); CMC 19,782 units (+5.3%); and Mitsubishi Motors 19,746 units (-12.2%).
