Taiwanese Vehicles Market in July 2024 bounces back from 5-month negative string. Monthly sales were 44,649 new registrations (+7.8%). YTD sales at 272,730 are up 0.3% from the prior year. MG boomed 112.7%, gaining 9 spots and ranking in 6th.
Market Trend and Outlook
Taiwan’s economy posted strong growth in Q1 2024 as real gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 6.56% in year-on-year terms, pushed by expanding real private final consumption and increasing exports.
The Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics states that Taiwan GDP is expected to increase 3.98% in 2024, pushed by the global boom in artificial intelligence. This growth is due to the strategic positioning of Taiwan in the global technological supply chain as the main producer of semiconductors and it’s heavy economic reliance on exports.
Despite the strong expectations for the Taiwanese economy, the automotive market remained mostly stagnant during the majority of H1, experiencing a 5-month negative string up to June 2024. However, the market recovered in July, reporting 44,649 new vehicle registrations (+7.8%). YTD sales at 272,730 increased by 0.3% from the prior year.
Looking at cumulative data up to July 2024 brand-wise, the leader remained Toyota with 73,128 sales (+0.5%), far in front of Lexus with just 18,478 sales (-9.6%).
Mercedes -up 1 spot- ranked 3rd with 16,798 sales (+10.1%), followed by Honda -down 1 spot- at 16,226 sales (+2.1%), Hyundai -up 1 spot- at 14,374 (+7.3%), MG -up 9 spots- at 13,134 registrations (+112.7%) and CMC -up 3 spots- in 7th with 12,205 sales (+8.1%).
BMW gained 1 spot into 8th with 12,091 sales (+6.7%), in front of Nissan -down 2 spots- at 11,970 (-5.2%), and Tesla -down 2 spots- closing the Top 10 with 11,468(-1.9%).
Looking at specific models, reported in the dedicated article, the Toyota Corolla Cross was still the best seller despite a 12.9% loss from the previous year, followed by the Toyota Town Ace up 27.7%.
Medium-Term Market Trend
The Taiwanese market has presented an overall growth in recent years, rising from 327,615 sales in 2010 to 438,145 in 2019. Despite the overall increase in demand between 2010 and 2019 , there have been some minor losses: -1.6% in 2012, -0.5% in 2015 and -3.0% in 2018.
In 2020 the Taiwanese Government was able to contain the Covid-19 virus through effective quarantines and avoid extreme measures like the lockdown. Mainly for these reasons the light vehicles market reached the current all-time high of 454,783 sales (+3.8).
Demand for light vehicles fell 1.1% in 2021 and in 2022 dropped even further (-4.0%). A combination of factors were behind the industry struggle: a disruption in the global supply chain caused by a lack of raw materials, in particular for the production of microchips, and the Governments push towards Evs. Despite these complications, the Taiwanese vehicle market in 2023 closed with 478,137 sales with an 11.4% increase compared to last year
Tables with sales figures
In the tables below we report sales for top 10 Brands.
