Luxgen Motor Co., a subsidiary of Taiwan-based auto conglomerate Yulon Motor, has received about 25,000 orders in preorder sales for its n7 electric vehicle model, a Yulon executive said recently as he looked ahead to the car market’s future.
Luxgen received 15,000 orders of Luxgen’s n7 sport utility vehicle 32 hours into the preorder period that began in September, and Yulon Motor Co. Vice President Li Chien-hui (李建輝) said that number has risen to about 25,000 since then.
He said the SUV still needed time to be tested for safety and that production of the vehicle is not expected to begin until the fourth quarter of 2023.
Shipments to fulfill the orders for 25,000 vehicles will begin that same quarter and continue into the first quarter of 2024, Li said.
The n7 model, which carries a price tag of about NT$1 million (US$32,154), is built based on the Model C prototype developed and unveiled by Taiwanese tech giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. last year.
Yulon Motor has built close business ties with Hon Hai in electric vehicle development through the MIH Consortium led by Hon Hai.
The MIH EV open platform was initiated by Hua-Chuang Automobile Information Technical Center Co., another subsidiary of Yulon Motor, and the Model C was one of the three prototypes Hon Hai introduced last year as part of its electric vehicle program.
While upbeat about the future of Luxgen’s electric vehicle, Lee was cautious about the domestic car market’s near-term prospects after having stagnated for much of this year.
He said the uncertainty caused by high inflation and subsequent hikes in interest rates around the world has hurt demand, while the supply of automotive chips remained tight, limiting car shipments.
In the first 10 months of this year, 337,000 cars were sold in Taiwan, down 5.6 percent from a year earlier.
Lee forecast car sales would reach about 420,000 units for the year as a whole, down from 449,854 units in 2021, which was already 1.7 percent lower than in 2020.
To develop alternative sources of revenue, Yulon Motor has moved into the commercial property market and is developing a shopping center in Xindian in New Taipei that is scheduled to start operations in the third quarter of 2023.
Sitting on 43,000 pings (one pings equals 3.3 square meters) of land, the shopping mall will house prominent tenants such as book store chain operator Eslite as well as Vieshow Cinemas, according to Lee.
In the first nine months of 2022, Yulon Motor posted a loss per share of NT$1.98, compared with earnings per share of NT$3.49 during the same period of 2021, due to massive payouts on COVID-19 insurance policies sold by subsidiary Tokio Marine Newa Insurance.
Excluding the losses from its insurance business, Yulon Motor had earnings per share of almost NT$4.9 over the nine-month period.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel