"Weekly car news " is a recap of some of the major stories in Taiwan car market last week.

"Weekly car news " is a recap of some of the major stories in Taiwan car market last week.

Market Overview: The car market in April has decreased by 10.3% compared with March. The total registration number this month is 37,038 units, which is 3.1% lower YOY. In this month, All the major brands except Mercedes-Benz and BMW have dropped in various scale compared with last month, and Tesla has the most severe drop of 35.1% due to CR-V’s 42.2% drop compared with last month, and it also has 41.2% of drop YoY. The accumulated registration number in the first 4 months of this year is 149,439 units, which is 0.4% lower YOY. As the supply of new cars came back to normal this year, the accumulated orders can be delivered successively among brands. However, the annual registration number this year shouldn’t be too positive according to the situation for the time being.

The advent of the electric vehicle (EV) era has sparked weighty transformations in the global auto market. Traditionally dominated by Europe, the US, Japan, and South Korea, this industry is now witnessing real shifts. China, already surpassing Japan in 2023 as the world's largest auto exporter, is a formidable player. However, an even more astonishing contender has emerged: VinFast, hailing from Vietnam. Despite selling fewer than 8,000 EVs in 2022, VinFast set an ambitious target of 50,000 sales for 2023. The big moment came when VinFast Auto debuted on Nasdaq in the US on August 15, 2023. The stock price soared, catapulting VinFast into the status of the third-largest auto company worldwide by market capitalization in two weeks. Substantial acclaim ensued unwaveringly.

Taiwan was just hit by a strong earthquake, the strongest since the 921 Earthquake in 1999. Measuring 7.3 magnitude on the Richter scale, the earthquake caused catastrophic damage in Hualien, near the epicenter, and resulted in power outages, affecting up to 3.2 gigawatts (GW) of capacity in Taiwan's power plants.

In the past two years, because of my articles on the future of the automotive industry, friends—both familiar and unfamiliar—have posed a common question on various occasions: If I want to buy a new car or replace my old car now, should I opt for a fossil fuel vehicle or an electric vehicle (EV)? The decision isn't straightforward. Electric cars are still costlier than their internal combustion engine counterparts. However, sticking with a traditional fuel car might mean acquiring the final iteration of that vehicle. This could leave you facing the challenge of finding someone to take over your car or reselling your car with diminishing resale value in the future. In this context, I'd like to share my personal insights and recommendations.

"Weekly car news " is a recap of some of the major stories in Taiwan car market last week.

"Weekly car news " is a recap of some of the major stories in Taiwan car market last week.

"Weekly car news " is a recap of some of the major stories in Taiwan car market last week.

Five years ago, discussing how the EV market would surpass ICE cars before 2030 may be regarded as wildly unrealistic. However, until now, these speculations have evolved from fiction to reality. Aside from environmental issues, the traditional car industry and analysts underestimated humankind’s desire for technology and imagination for innovation. Intelligent EVs have not only redefined auto products as a whole but also reinvented the concept of mobility.

3.5% of last year’s Taiwanese car market’s registration number were EVs, roughly sitting at 15k units and a global EV sales ratio of 0.14%, vastly lower than the new car market’s 0.55%. From another perspective, this means Taiwanese EV promotions still have a lot to improve. Most potential new car buyers’ considerations and obstacles to switching from ICE to EV will gradually be obsolete in three years. In addition, the global car market trend is reaching new heights from last year’s astounding 10-million EV achievement.

The R&D of autonomous driving technology has been at rock bottom worldwide in the past few years; except for the U.S. and China, all crucial auto countries such as Germany, Japan and Korea have been left behind in the race. The source of autonomous driving technology is big data, and it plays a significant part in how the two great powers, the U.S. and China, have managed to generate and maintain momentum for R&D. A wave of elimination will be inevitable in the next three years, but automakers that pull through and create a small-scale profit model will likely see a bumper crop in 2030!

During 2020 and 2021, traditional automakers worldwide dished out their five, ten, and fifteen-year strategies for vehicle electrification with roughly identical crucial timings: 2025, 2030, and 2035. The first five years to develop brand-new EV platforms, the second five to expand EV sales to designated ratios, and the third to phase out ICE production and go fully electric. Of all these plans, VAG’s iconic strategy stood out for its elaboration, thoroughness, and ability to utilize and integrate multi-brands resources. However, after more than a year, VAG’s development fell behind schedule. With Chinese self-owned brands starting to overtake the group, VAG has to take immediate action.

The cities that began actively conducting the pilot runs of Robotaxis or autonomous driving technologies around the world are San Francisco, Phoenix, and China’s Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Shenzhen, etc., Even though other major countries, such as Germany, UK, Japan, etc., also actively enact related regulations to conduct the pilot runs of L3 vehicles, but they are still far away from the ultimate technology application of Robotaxis on urban roads. It’s still obviously a duel between the two greats – China and USA in autonomous driving technology currently, and the aggressive planning of the Shanghai City government might be the demonstration city of the intellectualization of global urban transportation after a few years.