By Chen Cheng-hui / Staff reporterThe nation’s new car sales rose 1.1 percent last year from a year earlier, thanks to aggressive promotional campaigns by dealers last month, a report released on Thursday by online market researcher U-Car said. The government’s tax break program that encourages owners to trade in old vehicles for new ones also helped boost car sales last year, the report said. Car sales totaled 439,836 units, up from 435,135 in 2018, although sales of imported cars increased by an annual 6.42 percent to 209,949 units, making up 47.7 percent of the total, U-Car said, citing Directorate-General of Highways data. Last month alone, car sales rose 12.8 percent from a month earlier and 9.4 percent from a year earlier to 45,925 units on the back of strong sales of best-sellers, such as the new Toyota Corolla Altis sedan and new sport utility vehicle models including the Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V and Nissan Kicks, the report showed. It sold 35,793 cars, up 4.1 percent annually and accounting for 8.1 percent of total sales.
