South Korea’s vehicle sales decreased 2.4% year-on-year to 1,689,484 units in 2022. The figure is based on the combined results of the members of South Korea’s automotive industry association KAMA and imported vehicle association KAIDA as well as Tesla which is not a member of either association. Although individual consumption tax for passenger cars has been reduced, semiconductor shortages, interest rate hikes and high fuel costs due to the impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, sales dipped below 1.7 million units for the first time in eight years. HRead more...

Semiconductor manufacturers are stepping up investment in Japan. This is due to factors such as the expected increase in demand and the fact that the government is supporting the domestic production of semiconductors with subsidies to ensure economic security. As of December 2022, Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing, a joint venture of Taiwanese semiconductor maker TSMC and two Japanese companies Sony and Denso, American-Japanese computer memory manufacturer Kioxia, and US semiconductor maker Micron Technology have been approved for subsidies. Read more...

In 2022, the number of newly registered electric motorcycles (sales data is substituted with new registration data) in India expanded rapidly to 624,192 units, a 4.1-fold increase from the previous year. The market share of electric motorcycles went up 2.9 percentage points to 4.0% in 2022. According to India’s automobile manufacturers association SIAM, the size of India’s motorcycle market (wholesale volume) rose to 15.61 million units in 2022, an increase of 7.4% year-on-year. Due to stricter loan screening triggered by the large number of non-performiRead more...

Taiwan’s vehicle sales decreased 4.5% year-on-year to 429,738 units in 2022. The supply shortage of semiconductors and other parts continued, so sales fell below the previous year’s level for the second consecutive year. The sales of domestic-made vehicles decreased 2.9% to 234,975 units while imported vehicle sales dropped 6.3% to 194,763 units. Imported vehicles accounted for 45.3% of the total market, falling for the third consecutive year. Passenger vehicle sales rose 1.2% to 128,791 units and commercial vehicles went up 3.9% to 66,082 units, but recRead more...

The Philippines’s vehicle sales increased about 24% year-on-year to around 360,000 units in 2022. The figure is based on the combined results of the members of the Philippine automotive industry association CAMPI and truck manufacturers association TMA as well as members of the association of imported vehicle dealers AVID as well as automakers which are not members of the above-mentioned associations. Since some automakers are members of more than one association, figures were adjusted accordingly. Compared to the pre-corona level of 2019 and before, saRead more...

Malaysia’s automobile sales reached 720,658 units in 2022, up 41.6% year-on-year. In addition to the market rebound following two years decline in 2020 and 2021 triggered by the corona pandemic, sales were boosted by automobile sales tax exemption measures that ended at the end of June 2022, the booming economy and the easing of parts shortages in the second half of the year. As a result, sales exceeded 700,000 units for the first time. The sales of BEVs in 2022 reached 2,631 units, rising nearly 10-fold compared to the 274 units of the previous year.Read more...

Looking at data by vehicle type, trucks increased by 0.2% to 5,938,350 units, mini vehicles went up by 0.4% to 31,148,992 units, while passenger cars decreased by 0.4% to 39,017,038 units. The ratio of mini vehicles to total ownership rose by 0.2 percentage points to 39.9%. Looking at mini vehicles by application, the growth rate for both mini passenger cars and mini trucks was higher for commercial use than for private use. The growth rate of mini passenger cars for business use was 6.2% (0.5% for private use), and the growth rate of mini trucks for Read more...

Vietnam’s vehicle sales increased 33.0% year-on-year to 404,635 units in 2021 (sales data of VAMA members only). Hyundai Motor’s local subsidiary Hyundai Thanh Cong Vietnam (HTCV) and local automaker VinFast, which are not included in VAMA’s official statistics, sold 81,582 units and 22,924 units respectively in 2022. Combined sales of VAMA members, HTCV and VinFast went up 24.1% in 2022 to 509,141 units, surpassing the 500,000-unit mark for the first time. The GDP growth rate in 2022 was high at 8.02% thanks to the market seeing a rebound following the Read more...

Pakistan’s vehicle sales decreased 4.2% year-on-year to 232,762 units (locally-assembled vehicles of PAMA members) in 2022. Although the first six months of the year trended at a record high pace, the second half of the year saw a drop of more than 30% compared to the same month of the previous year in five months, excluding November. The strong sales in the first half of 2022 were due to a rebound in demand squelched by lockdowns in 2021 and the government cutting tax rates, including the federal excise tax on cars and the small car sales tax. HoweveRead more...

Indonesia’s vehicle sales increased 18.1% year-on-year to 1,048,040 units in 2022 (wholesale data), surpassing the pre-corona level of over 1.03 million units of 2019. In addition to rising demand following the pandemic, sales were aided by the reduction of luxury tax on automobiles in the first nine months of the year. Passenger vehicle sales went up 18.8% to 783,563 units and commercial vehicle sales increased 16.3% to 264,477 units. Bar graph: Indonesia: Sales Volume of Automobiles by Type (2013-2022) Line graph: Indonesia: Market Share of Top 5 BRead more...

Pakistan's automobile market (sales of locally assembled vehicles by PAMA-member manufacturers) in 2022 is expected to decrease by 9.4% from the previous year to around 220,000 units. The market in 2021 saw a sharp recovery following the corona lockdown in the previous year. The rebound was also aided by the reduction of the federal excise tax on automobiles and the sales tax reform on small vehicles starting from July. In 2022, although the first half of 2022 benefited from the same tax cut, sales stalled from the second half when the tax cut ended. Read more...

In December 2022, it was revealed that Hyundai Mobility (Thailand) was established in Thailand as a subsidiary of the South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor. For the past few years, Hyundai Motor has been pushing hard to capture the ASEAN market, which is the stronghold of Japanese OEMs. Following Vietnam and Indonesia, Thailand is the third country in ASEAN in which a manufacturing and sales subsidiary of Hyundai Motor has been established. Until now, Hyundai Motor (Thailand), a joint venture with Japan's Sojitz and local auto parts supplier AAPICO HitRead more...

Vietnam's automobile sales in 2022 are expected to increase by about 22% year-on-year to around 500,000 units. Until 2019, Vietnam's automobile market had been expanding steadily due to its strong economic growth. In 2020 and 2021, there was a slight decrease due to social isolation measures triggered by the spread of COVID-19. Thanks to the 50% reduction in registration fees for CKD vehicles implemented from December 2021 to May 2022 and increased economic activity, it is certain that vehicle sales will reach a record high in 2022. The 2023 market isRead more...

According to J.D. Power’s “J.D. Power 2022 U.S. Tech Experience Index (TXI) Study,” a customer satisfaction survey on advanced automobile functions conducted in the United States, three South Korean brands, Hyundai, Kia and Genesis of the Hyundai Motor Group, ranked high in the Overall Innovation Ranking, all three entering the top 10. Genesis seized first place while Hyundai and Kia ranked 4th and 8th respectively. In this ranking, premium brands and mass-market brands were ranked as one category, and while premium brands with more advanced safety functRead more...

The number of automobiles sold in the Philippines in 2022 is expected to increase by about 30% from the previous year to about 380,000 units. In 2021, in addition to the impact of the resurging new coronavirus infection, the imposition of provisional safeguard duties on imported vehicles drove down demand to a low level of around 250,000 units. Although demand is forecast to improve in 2022, surpassing 300,000 units, sales are not expected to reach the pre-corona level of over 400,000 units at least until 2024. The automobile market in 2023 is expecteRead more...

eve autonomy, a joint venture between two Japanese companies motorcycle manufacturer Yamaha Motor and software provider Tier IV, announced on November 30, 2022 that they will start offering eve auto, an unmanned transportation service using Japan’s first autonomous driving BEV. Since its establishment in February 2020, eve autonomy has developed an automatic transport service, eve auto, to solve the needs of high-mix low-volume production and chronic labor shortages at factory logistics sites. It has been introduced on a trial basis at Yamaha Motor'sRead more...

China’s sales volume of passenger vehicles (substituted with factory shipment data) in the first 10 months of 2022 increased by 13.7% year-on-year to 19.22 million units. The full-year outlook is around 23.55 million units, up 9.6%, surpassing the pre-corona level of 2019. In the first half of 2022, due to the corona lockdown in Changchun from March to May and in Shanghai from April to June, which are clusters of the local automobile industry, sales dropped sharply. From June to December, the central government reduced purchase tax from 10% to 5% for Read more...

In 2022, Malaysia’s automobile sales are expected to grow by about 38% year-on-year to around 700,000 units. Such large increase is forecast following weak sales results in 2020 and 2021 which were triggered by the corona crisis. The market is expected to reach record high levels thanks to the strong purchasing power of Malaysians, the fact that Perodua, which drives the market, resolved the shortage of semiconductors in September 2022, and the effect of the sales tax reduction that ended at the end of June 2022 will continue for the time being due to deRead more...

Kwang Yang Motor Co., Ltd. or KYMCO is a Taiwanese motorcycle manufacturer which has been shifting its focus to BEV motorcycles. Although KYMCO competes with another Taiwanese motorcycle maker SYM for the top spot in Taiwan’s total motorcycle market, Gogoro and its alliance brands maintain a 90% share of the BEV market, which makes up 10% of the total market. In order to become more competitive in the BEV market, in addition to promoting the introduction of new products, KYMCO has set out a plan to establish 2,000 battery swapping stations and 100 BEV deRead more...

The Indonesian automobile market is expected to recover to around 1.028 million units in 2022. In February 2022, Indonesia reintroduced tax reduction measures for the luxury tax imposed on automobiles, which was previously implemented from March 2021 to the end of the year. As the economy recovered from the pandemic, this tax cut boosted demand. Automobile sales in 2023 are expected to increase slightly from the previous year to around 1.03 million units. The global economy is projected to stagnate. For this reason, the International Monetary Fund andRead more...

In 2022, the automotive market of Thailand is expected to grow by approximately 7% compared to 2020 and by about 10% compared to 2021 to around 850,000 units, a recovery to just under 90% of the pre-coronavirus level. From the beginning of 2022, Thailand's exports expanded to a level above pre-coronavirus levels against the backdrop of a recovery in overseas demand and the depreciation of the Thai currency. Private consumption is also expanding as the economy is revitalized by the resumption of the tourism industry and an increase in investment. The GDP Read more...

The sales volume (substituted with factory shipment data) of NEVs (BEV, PHEV and FCEV) in China is expected to exceed 6.8 million units in 2022, nearly doubling from the previous year. Since 2022 was the final year of the NEV subsidy policy, it is forecast that last-minute demand likely boosted NEV sales. In addition, NEV sales in 2023 is expected to increase by 33% from 2022 to 9.1 million units. In recent years, in addition to the extension of cruising range by the performance improvement of NEVs, the installation of smart functions such as voice reRead more...

In 2022, the Indian automobile market is expected to reach a record high of 4.6 million units. The impact of production restrictions due to the supply disruption of semiconductors has been eased, and backorders are being processed at an accelerated pace. On the other hand, due to high fuel costs and other factors, the global trend of inflation has intensified since the beginning of 2022. In India, too, the consumer price index continues to rise and the policy interest rate continues to expand, and the depreciation of the national currency against the US Read more...

China's automobile sales (substituted with factory shipment data) in the first 10 months of 2022 increased by 4.6% year-on-year to 21.97 million units. Full-year sales are expected to rise by 2.4% to 26.91 million units. In the first half of 2022, the new coronavirus infection spread again in some areas of China, so the “zero corona” policy with strict restrictions on movement was thoroughly enforced, resulting in a decline in automobile production and sales. Since June 2022, the automobile market has returned to a growth trajectory due to the Chinese goRead more...

Lebanon's automobile sales in 2021 reached 11,000 units, up 2.0% from the previous year, avoiding a four-year decline. Although sales slightly increased in 2021, demand was significantly lower compared to the 2014-2017 period when annual sales were around 50,000 units on average. Toyota, the leading automaker in Lebanon, increased sales 68.4% to 4,286 units, raising its market share from 23.2% of the previous year to 38.3%. Second-placed Nissan saw a 21.1% drop in sales to 1,515 units. Lexus, ranked third in 2021, went up 2.5-fold to 1,068 units. LebaRead more...

Qatar's automobile sales in 2021 went up 11.8% year-on-year to 41,823 units, marking the first increase in six years. However, sales were down 7.8% compared to 2019 and over 40% compared to the recent peak in 2015. Toyota, the leading automaker in Qatar, decreased 4.1% to 12,789 units; however, it maintained its over 30% market share. Second-placed Nissan saw a 7.4% drop in sales to 4,295 units. On the other hand, the next three brands, Mitsubishi, Kia and Hyundai, increased doubled digits. Qatar: Recent Developments Market Trends ・In 2021, sales roRead more...