Taiwan October November 2020: Toyota Corolla Cross lands directly at #1, breaks SUV volume record

The Toyota Corolla Cross is the new star of the Taiwanese market. Picture u-car.com.tw

In October, the Taiwanese new car market drops -3% year-on-year to 39.792 units, leading to a year-to-date tally up 3.5% to 365.598. Toyota (-9.3%) easily remains the most popular brand in Taiwan with 27.2% share, distancing Mitsubishi/CMC (+5.7%) while Nissan (+13.8%) scores the best lift atop the brands charts. BMW (+9.3%), Ford (+9.1%), Mazda (+5.7%), Honda (+5.5%) and Hyundai (#10) also defy the market drop. But the big event of the month is to be found in the models ranking: launches on October 12, the Toyota Corolla Cross lands directly and very easily in pole position with an astounding 8.8% share. We believe this is the first time we at BSCB witness a nameplate landing directly in first place in Taiwan. The Toyota RAV4 (-48.9%) and Corolla Altis (-32.5%) may have been affected as a result. The other Top 10 hero is the Nissan Sentra (+745.8%) up 8-fold year-on-year to #7 thanks to a new generation. The Ford Kuga (+150.4%), Honda CR-V (+27.1%) and Mitsubishi Delica (+14.1%) also shine in the remainder of the Top 10.

In November, the market rallies back up 13.8% year-on-year to 46.332 units, meaning the year-to-date tally is now up 4.6% to 411.930, making Taiwan one of the only countries in the world to currently post a YTD gain in 2020. Toyota (+18.8%) at 28.8% share and Mitsubishi/CMC (+23.8%) at 10.3% share both outpace the market atop the brands ranking, as does Ford (+52.4%) in 4th place and BMW (+22.5%) at #8. In the models ranking, for its first full month of sales in Taiwan the Toyota Corolla Cross hits a gargantuan 13.4% share thanks to 5.319 sales which is only 531 units short of the all-time monthly volume record hit by the Toyota Corolla Altis back in January 2015 (5.850), and a new all time monthly record for an SUV in Taiwan. The Corolla Cross already ranks #10 year-to-date, and it looks like it is hampering the performance of both the RAV4 (-38.7%) and Corolla Altis (-35.6%). The Nissan Sentra (+635.1%) and Ford Kuga (+359.7%) post stratospheric gains thanks to new generations, with the CMC Veryca (+36.3%) and Ford Focus (+17.8%) also strong.

Previous post: Taiwan September 2020: Hyundai Venue lands at #13, sales up 13.3%

One year ago (October): Taiwan October 2019: Toyota RAV4 topples Corolla YTD in market up 17.1%

One year ago (November): Taiwan November 2019: Toyota RAV4 (+139.2%) confirms YTD domination in market up 13%

Full October and November 2020 Top 10 brands and Top XX models below.