Following the launch of its first own auto brand “Luxgen” (納智捷) in September, Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車) yesterday unveiled a second brand — “Tobe” (酷比) — that will target the domestic and export markets.
The nation’s biggest automaker plans to start exporting Tobe cars to Vietnam next month, which will be followed shortly by sales to the Philippines, China and the Middle East, Hsu Kuo-hsing (許國興), president of Yulon Tobe Motor Co (裕隆酷比汽車), told reporters on the sidelines of the launch.
Yulon Tobe was founded with a capital of NT$200 million (US$6.1 million) and is 100 percent owned by Yulon Motor.
PHOTO: KAO CHIA-HO, TAIPEI TIMES
Hsu refused to reveal export figures, saying the company was waiting for market feedback after Tobe’s launch.
Tobe cars are a revamped model based on the Panda car of Chinese automaker Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd (吉利汽車), a technology partner of Yulon.
Hsu said more than 35 percent of the car parts — including the engine, car seats, gears and windshield — were designed or enhanced in Taiwan to cater to local demand and regulations, and the cars have passed stringent safety tests, allaying some buyers’ concern that they could be purchasing a “made in China” car.
Yulon Tobe and Geely are going to work more closely on exporting Tobe cars, either using the Tobe or Geely brand when marketing them in different markets in the future, Hsu said.
“Major automakers around the world have set up bases in China, and a lot of car components are produced there. It is the trend,” Yulon Tobe chairman Chen Kuo-rong (陳國榮) said.
He said Tobe was the first product of the company’s cooperation with China in terms of technology transfer, adding that Yulon’s strength in electric cars could be applied to Tobe cars.
Taiwanese consumers would see the first Tobe 1,300cc M’ Car (pronounced my-car) hit the road in January, with a price tag of about NT$400,000.
“This is the price range wherein we see no competition at all,” said Chen, adding that university students and young adults would be drawn to its affordability.
The company expects to sell up to 500 M’ Cars per month in Taiwan next year. It also hopes to launch an electric-version when the market for electric cars becomes more mature and gains subsidies from the government, Yulon Tobe said.
Thanks to the commodity tax cut of NT$30,000 imposed by the government to boost car sales this year, Taiwan’s new vehicle sales jumped 49.1 percent year-on-year to 25,829 units last month, statistics from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications showed.
Cumulative sales in the first 10 months of the year rose 9.4 percent to more than 218,000 units, the ministry said.
The tax cut expires on Dec. 31.
“Discontinuing the tax cut next year would impact the industry, and every carmaker has to compete on the same ground,” Yulon Tobe’s marketing executive Steven Lo (羅明德) said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last