New vehicle sales in Taiwan expanded by over 45% to 34,846 units in August 2020 from weak year earlier sales of 23,964 units, according to local reports citing registration data compiled by the directorate of highways.
The market benefited from a late start to the annual ‘ghost month’, on 19 August instead of 1 August last year. This falls on the seventh month after the Lunar New Year and, according to Buddhist and Taoist tradition, brings bad luck to anyone buying large items during in the 30 day period. Vehicles sales are expected to be sharply lower in September as a result.
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The vehicle market in the first eight months of the year expanded by 3.3% to 288,565 units, from 279,315 in the same period of last year, with sales of imported vehicles rising by 8.6% to 141,596 units while domestic sales declined by 1.3% to 146,969 units.
Toyota reported an 8.4% sales rise to 82,306 vehicles year to date, helped by strong demand for the Corolla and RAV4 models, while Yulon Nissan sales fell by 5.8% to 21,094 units, Mercedes-Benz 18,550 (-1.8%), Honda 18,121 (-14.3%) and Lexus 15,790 (+14.7).
