Focus Taiwan
Date:01/04/2021
By: Han Ting-ting and Frances Huang

Taipei, Jan. 4 (CNA) Car sales in Taiwan were the highest in 15 years in 2020, which vendors attributed to travel restrictions amid COVID-19 that led consumers to take trips at home and increased demand for vehicles.

Government subsidies to encourage replacements of old cars and motorcycles to promote cleaner air were set to end on Jan. 7, leading consumers to take advantage of them before they expired, according to the vendors.

Among the consumer segments boosting demand were Taiwanese businesspeople and Taiwanese students living overseas who returned home to avoid COVID-19 infections and bought a car to get around, the vendors said.

Car sales in Taiwan rose 4 percent from a year earlier to 457,435 units in 2020, the second highest total in history behind only the 514,626 units sold in 2005, according to government figures released Monday.    [FULL  STORY]