Electric bus maker Kaison Green Energy Technology Co (凱勝綠能) has inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Macquarie Formosa Solar Co (麥格理太陽光電) to collaborate on expanding its product portfolio to cover electric vehicles (EV) and electric charging infrastructure areas.
Based on the MOU, Kaison is to focus on developing electric vehicles, including sedans, buses, commercial trucks and scooters, as well as components for charging stations and electricity storage facilities, it said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
Macquarie Formosa Solar, a subsidiary of Macquarie Group Ltd, is to be mainly responsible for providing consultancy on financing and fundraising arrangements, the statement said.
Photo courtesy of Kaison Green Energy Technology Co
The companies did not rule out further deepening their partnership by broadening the scale of operations, it added.
Rechargeable battery supplier Energy Moana Technology Co (能海電能科技) is also included in the collaboration, the statement said.
Energy Moana makes electric scooters powered by chargeable batteries and helps install charging stations.
Kaison, based in Taichung, is the biggest electric bus maker in Taiwan, with a 33 percent market share. As of June, it had sold 173 units and counts Metropolitan Transport Corp (大都會客運) and Taipei Bus Transportation Co (台北客運) as its major customers.
The company in June secured a new NT$240 million (US$8.62 million) order from Fengyuan Bus Transportation Co (豐原汽車客運) after receiving in January an NT$85 million order from Singing Bus Co (新營客運) for electric buses.
Given its limited product offering and manufacturing capacity, Kaison is still struggling to make a profit. The company saw its losses swell to NT$19.34 million in the first six months of this year, compared with losses of NT$16.63 million in the same period last year. That translated to a loss of NT$0.33 per share in the first half of this year, compared with a loss of NT$0.3 per share in the prior year.
Taiwan has the potential to grow its electric bus market over the next 20 years as the Ministry of Transportation and Communications last year set a goal to retire all diesel-powered buses by 2030. The ministry expects the bus electrification program would bring about NT$170 billion in business opportunities for the local electric bus industry, as about 16,000 buses would be replaced.
Separately, Master Transportation Bus Manufacturing Ltd (成運汽車製造) has gained approval from the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區) to invest NT$2 billion to expand its capacity for manufacturing electric buses, battery modules and electric integration systems in a fab at the science park’s Erlin Township (二林) campus in Changhua County, the science park said in a statement.
Master Transportation received certification in February to participate in a pilot program of electrifying buses initiated by the ministry.
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
RSS