Taiwan Production (Brand) : 2017-18

This is a commonly used traditional gesture in Taiwan

In Asia, nurturing and protecting local industry is a very high priority. A classic case is the Taiwanese vehicle industry. 250,000 vehicles were made in 2018, with eleven brands represented, although there are seven producers. Still, that's a lot of manufacturers for a relatively small number actually made.

Kouzui Toyota: They are the biggest with 100,000 units, the Corolla is the largest single model with 49,000 made. Just under 8,000 vehicles are commercial ones.

CMC: The China Motor Corporation make vehicles under the CMC brand, Mitsubishi and Fuso, totaling 47,000 units. The CMC Veryca range of light commercials is the main model with just over 14,000 produced.

Yulon: This company makes Nissan and Luxgen models. The latter is a local brand assembling MPVs and SUVs, but production was down nearly half in 2018, so I wonder what its future is.

Honda: Two years of growth puts it second according to brand name. The CR-V accounts for just over half of the total. Four different models are made here.

Ford Lio Ho: Until recently manufactured for both Ford and Mazda, it's now just for Ford. About half of the total is for the Kuga model. With numbers dropping 27% to just 13,000 in 2018, I wonder what the future holds.

San Yang: Hyundai and Kia are here, but not with much presence. Kia make two models but I can't understand how that can be viable. Hyundai have several, none of which stand out numerically.

Formosa: They make DAF trucks and seem to assemble a reasonable amount of them.

Vehicles
17	18	Brand	Units '18	Share	+/-	Units '17	Share	+/-
1	1	Toyota	101,626	40.1%	-18%	123,418	42.3%	-17%
3	2	Honda	35,830	14.1%	13%	31,692	10.9%	30%
2	3	Nissan	34,076	13.5%	-13%	39,176	13.4%	-5%
4	4	CMC	22,135	8.7%	-8%	23,938	8.2%	1%
5	5	Mitsubishi	19,051	7.5%	-4%	19,863	6.8%	-2%
6	6	Ford	12,968	5.1%	-27%	17,719	6.1%	9%
8	7	Hyundai	10,984	4.3%	-3%	11,308	3.9%	4%
7	8	Luxgen	8,354	3.3%	-47%	15,699	5.4%	-5%
9	9	Fuso	5,990	2.4%	2%	5,845	2.0%	14%
10	10	Kia	1,352	0.5%	-33%	2,020	0.7%	120%
11	11	DAF	875	0.3%	-1%	885	0.3%	-3%
		Total	253,241		-13%	291,563		-6%

Data source: TTVMA

Summary: The industry seems rather small for the number of models assembled. I can't see it being an efficient way to provide mobility to a country but it does provide some work and maybe is even a way of limiting the number of cars on the roads.

You didn't believe me, did you?