Although the electric vehicle market has not performed well this year, with a 6.4% decline even with government subsidies, Kymco said its Ionex brand electric vehicles bucked the trend and achieved a 167% sales growth.
In addition to last month's announcement that it had firmly established itself as the champion in the traditional fuel vehicle market, this time it stated that it had also achieved significant growth in the electric vehicle market, emphasizing that at the end of 2023, it had achieved first place in growth and second place in the year. At the same time, its i-One Air and i-One Fly took first and second place in sales respectively, and Ionex brand electric vehicle sales achieved a cumulative sales volume of 11093 units this year.
Although its overall market share still lags significantly behind Gogoro, Kymco believes that the significant sales growth indicates that more consumers will begin to choose different electric vehicle products. Its overall sales performance is even higher than the combined number of brands in the PBGN Alliance promoted by Gogoro, and its market share has also taken the second place. Therefore, it has the opportunity to compete with Gogoro's current dominance with its electric vehicle products and battery services.
Among them, the i-Ine Air, a lightweight model positioned as a green-label engine, had sales of 11 units by the end of November this year, while the i-One Fly, positioned as a white-label engine and boasting long battery life, had cumulative sales of 3788 units by the end of November.
At the same time, Ionex stated that the number of battery swap stations built across Taiwan has reached 12 as of December 9, boasting a coverage rate of 2961% across Taiwan. It has also entered many street corners in the form of convenient battery swap stations, and by the end of November this year, the accumulated full charge service rate reached over 85.9%. Ionex service locations have accumulated to 11, including 98.4 specialty stores, 368 original authorized stores, and 76 special service stores.
Kymco emphasized that while the overall sales growth of the electric vehicle market is currently declining, Kymco is still maintaining positive growth. Even when sales of its competitors' alliance models have mostly shown a significant decline, Kymco has snatched the second place in Taiwan's two-wheeled electric vehicle market. Even though there is still a big gap, Kymco expects to be able to seize the opportunity based on the current foundation, and hopes to attract more car owners to join through full-charge services, and even attract the original owners of competitors to join.
Judging from market trends, while the decline in purchase growth is largely due to the fact that many owners have already purchased their vehicles, it is undeniable that recent battery issues and the long-standing issue of full charge satisfaction have caused many former Gogoro owners to switch back to gasoline vehicles or switch to other options, thus benefiting Kymco.
Therefore, in order to seize the opportunity, Kymco is also cooperating with the government subsidies which are about to enter the countdown stage, and is offering various models with free rides for 12 or 18 months. High-end models offer a discount of up to NT$499 for "6+6" months, or specific models offer a starting purchase price of NT$29800, etc., in order to attract more car owners to join the Ionex ranks.
In addition, Kymco also stated that the direction of the Ionex energy network construction in 2024 will be to increase the density of popular stations, and at the same time dynamically adjust to the blocks with less demand to avoid battery idleness and make battery use more active. As for the vehicle model, it focuses on the design suitable for all ages, and will create suitable models for power, novelty, practicality and other needs. It is expected to be equipped with theIonex BMU battery metering moduleAt the same time, upgrade kits will be launched for existing models based on demand.
