Registration Report Analysis - 2022 December Taiwan Car Market

By Mike Song 2023-01-03

Market Overview: The car market in November has increased by 5.5% compared with that of November, and the total registration number this month is 41,854 units, which is 4.5% lower YOY. The accumulated registration number this year is 429,733 units, which 4.5% YOY. Many brands have certain growth of sales this month, which indicates the promotions before the end of this year had begun being enhanced, and I believed that the sales performance of next month won’t be under expectation. As for the global chip shortage issue, it’s just like my prediction last month that the situation will last until the 2nd half of next year, and the timing for Taiwan car market to be relieved from this issue will be later than other major markets, so it might be the year after. Generally, the annual performance of major brands in 2022 can be concluded as below… Although Tesla has extremely unstable supply, the Model Y has been delivered by 3,598 units this month that the growth rate of the whole year is up to 105.5%; Besides, South Korean brands are undoubtedly the biggest winners… Kia has 27.2% growth over last year, the annual sales volume of Hyundai is 15,394 units, as their market share would surpass Mazda and be getting close to BMW. The annual car market size is just like our estimate in the past few months, which is around 425,000~430,000 units.

Market share of brands:

The market share performance of each brand this month is still led by Toyota/Lexus (26.5%) and CMC Mitsubishi (10.2%) as the first and second place; If the MG (1.5%) is counted in, then CMC will have 10.0% share. The top two have stable performance that accounts almost 37.9% of the total annual car market. In addition, the 3rd to 6th positions of the YTD sales are Honda, Ford, Nissan, and Mercedes-Benz accordingly. Among these brands, Nissan had announced to raise the prices in next January, and Ford had reduced the prices against the odds recently, so that the sales of these two brands went up in December.

Comparison between domestic cars and imported cars (excluding heavy duty trucks):

The sales ratio of domestic cars and imported cars is 48% vs. 52% this month, and YTD ratio is 52.7% vs. 47.3%. Domestic cars have relatively stable sales performance YOY since the beginning of this year, but the performance of the whole years isn’t as good as YOY. In general, the issue of lack of supply influences more on imported cars brands this year.

Outstanding models:

There are 9 models that had more than 1,000 units of sales this month… Model Y (3,598 units), Corolla Cross (3,039 units), CR-V (1,651 units), Corolla Altis (1,413 units), Kicks (1,361 units), Focus (1,292 units), RAV4 (1,162 units), CX-5 (1,135 units), Kuga (1,029 units). In the competition of light duty trucks, Toyota Town Ace was defeated by CMC Veryca (635 units vs. 954 units). However, Town Ace Van went on sale on 27th December, so that the competition with Veryca after it goes on sale is expected to be white-hot.

BEVs market:

The delivery of BEVs is totaling 4,814 units this month; Model Y has been delivered by 3,598 units, Model 3 has been delivered by 475 units, and the iX has been delivered by 106 units, and some models started to have dozens of units delivered on a monthly basis. Tesla had delivered 11,575 units this year, and their most competitive product Model Y had begun delivery in December. Tesla’s annual market share is 2.7%.