A rapidly expanding manufacturer of all-electric cars, solar panels and other “green energy” products from China announced on Friday that it would open a North American headquarters in Los Angeles, with plans to begin selling it all-electric autos in the US by the end of this year.
City officials said the arrival of BYD Inc (比亞迪) of Shenzhen, China, would initially create about 150 high-paying jobs as the company hires managers, designers and engineers to staff its new downtown headquarters.
As it begins to market cars in the US, officials expect several hundred more jobs to be created in related industries involving service and sales.
‘A COUP’
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger hailed the move as a coup for California and proof that the state’s promotion of “green energy” programs was paying off by attracting high-tech, clean-energy companies that would help consumers reduce both pollution and their reliance on overseas oil.
“As I’ve always said, what is good for the environment is also good for the economy,” Schwarzenegger said at a press conference at Los Angeles City Hall in which he and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa welcomed BYD officials, including the company’s chairman and founder, Wang Chuanfu (王傳福).
Since starting BYD in 1995, Wang has built it into the world’s largest producer of rechargeable batteries for mobile phones and laptop computers.
The company, which employs 150,000 people, also produces solar panels and lighting systems. It is also working to develop a technology to store solar energy.
According to BYD’s Web site, US billionaire Warren Buffett bought a 10 percent stake in the company in 2008.
GREEN DREAM
Wang said BYD stands for “Build Your Dream.”
“Our dream is a ‘green’ dream,” he told the press conference.
The company moved into the auto business in 2003 and began selling the world’s first mass-produced plug-in hybrid, the F3DM, in 2008.
It introduced a US audience to its latest model, the all-electric e6 at Detroit’s annual auto show earlier this year.
The crossover sedan-wagon model is what BYD plans to begin selling in the US by year’s end.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day