Taiwan July 2020: Toyota (+14.9%), Ford (+44.2%) can’t prevent market fall (-9.3%)

After returning to positive in June (+8.2%), new car sales in Taiwan are off -9.3% year-on-year in July to 43.939, tilting the year-to-date tally back into negative at -0.6% to 253.720. This disappointing evolution has in fact a lot to do with the timing of the traditional folklore month which started on August 1 in 2019 and resulted in a rush to sell new vehicles at the end of July. In 2020, this holiday period starts much later, on August 19, allowing sales to be spread more evenly between July and August.

Toyota (+14.7%) bucks the negative trend to end the month just below 30% share whereas immediate followers Mitsubishi/CMC (-10.3%), Honda (-10.8%) and Nissan/Infiniti (-4.7%) all lose ground year-on-year. Ford (+44.2%) is the hero of the month and steps up two spots on June to #5 overall with 6.7% share vs. 5.2% so far in 2020. All other Top 10 brands are down, with Mazda (-28.8%), BMW (-19.1%) and Mercedes (-18.5%) hit the hardest.

In the models ranking, the Toyota RAV4 (+28.5%) cements its domination with a splendid 9% share, distancing the Toyota Corolla Altis (-8.7%) and the Honda CR-V (-8.1%). The CMW Veryca (+13.3%) is the only additional Top 8 model to post a year-on-year gain, with the Nissan Kicks (-1.4%), Toyota Sienta (-3.2%) and Ford Focus (-4.9%) all down but outpacing the market. Once again the Ford Kuga (+159.3%) is the best performer in the Top 10 thanks to the new generation, while the Mitsubishi Delica (+32.2%) also score a significant uptick.

Previous month: Taiwan June 2020: Toyota RAV4 (+88.8%) surges ahead in recovered market (+8.2%)

One year ago: Taiwan July 2019: Toyota (+19.9%), Lexus (+60.2%) help prop market up 12.5%

Full July 2020 Top 10 brands and Top 80 models below.