There will be a boom in the popularity of electric vehicles in Taiwan in five or six years, Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) said on Tuesday while presiding over a ceremony to mark the launch of a government project aimed at encouraging people to buy electric vehicles.
Shih said he arrived at the venue, the National Taiwan Science Education Center in Taipei, in an electric vehicle.
“It’s really cozy,” he said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Although such vehicles are not cheap, the Smart Electric Cars Pilot Project initiated by the Ministry of Economic Affairs has been set up to help people buy or lease such vehicles.
FUNDING
Under the three-year project, which has central-government funding of NT$2.2 billion (US$72.79 million), local governments will begin to build the basic infrastructure required for electric vehicles, including battery-charging stations, Shih said.
Once the market and relevant systems have expanded in five or six years, the electric vehicle industry will “rise up,” he said.
Under the ministry’s project, the Greater Taipei area and Greater Taichung would be the first regions in the country to implement low-carbon transportation options.
CHARGING STATIONS
In the capital, Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車) will make available 40 of its Luxgen multipurpose vehicles and 60 of its Tobe-brand M’Car compact cars for short-term leasing, while the governments of Taipei City and New Taipei City (新北市) will have the option of setting up 100 electric car charging stations around the greater Taipei region in the coming years, according to the Taipei Metropolis Low-Carbon Travel Program.
Greater Taichung has plans to build 161 charging stations and has purchased 64 electric vehicles for public use.
Shih said he expected Greater Tainan and Greater Kaohsiung would quickly catch up with the two pioneer regions in the promotion of low-carbon transport.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”