Taiwan luxury sedan maker plans exports

Taiwan luxury sedan maker Luxgen Motor plans to start exporting its vehicles to five foreign markets from the fourth quarter, a report said Wednesday.

Luxgen, a wholly owned unit of Yulon Motor, aims to sign sales contracts with dealers in Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Vietnam and the Dominican Republic in early October, according to the Central News Agency.

"It will be the first time Luxgen sells its products overseas," an unnamed spokeswoman told the agency. "We are looking forward to it."

A joint venture with China's Dongfeng Motor plans to begin selling Luxgen models in the mainland in the first half of 2011 after recently getting approval from the authorities there, the spokeswoman said.

The Taiwanese company put the finishing touches to the Luxgen - coined from the words "luxury" and "genius" - last year.

At 800,000 Taiwan dollars (25,000 US dollars), the company hopes it will appeal to tech-savvy but only moderately wealthy consumers at home and abroad.

ph/dan