Taiwan’s first battery exchange station for electric scooters and motorcycles was opened in Greater Kaohsiung on Feb. 23. The city’s Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB) also announced measures for subsidies that will encourage people to purchase electric scooters, hoping to gradually eliminate all two-stroke engine motorcycles and scooters within the next 10 years and significantly improve the quality of air in the city.
At 2.26 million, Greater Kaohsiung has the largest number of scooters and motorcycles in the entire nation, including 580,000 two-stroke engine motorcycles, emitting approximately 9,000 tonnes of volatile organic compounds annually, which is nearly on par with the emissions of a steel mill. The EPB has been promoting electric scooters for a long time, and has also been busy dealing with the issues of scooter prices, charging batteries, and convenience, the overall effectiveness of which has not been very apparent. There are only slightly more than 1,700 of these scooters currently on the roads and registered.
Businesses say the system is divided into three sections — waiting to be delivered, charging, and charged. All a person needs to do is pay with a prepay card, input instructions on a computer screen, and insert the lithium battery in the exchange station in exchange for a charged one. The entire process takes only a few minutes. The EPB says they are planning to have 30 stations up and running by the end of May, which they estimate will be able to serve around 5,000 electric scooters.
Photo: Wang Jung-hsiang, Liberty Times
照片:自由時報記者王榮祥
Apart from subsidizing vehicle purchases and offering NT$10,000 (US$338) prepay cards, the EPB is upping the ante by also offering subsidies of NT12,500 in hopes that people will be more willing to buy and ride electric scooters. Technicians say they are currently capable of going up to 80km per hour and that a full battery lasts around an hour, allowing approximately 80km of travel. It costs around NT$50 to exchange a battery.
(Liberty Times, Translated by Kyle Jeffcoat)
全台第一處電動機車電池交換站,二月二十三日在高雄市啟用。高市環保局同時宣布加碼補助措施,鼓勵民眾騎乘電動機車,希望在十年內逐步汰除老舊二行程車款,改善大高雄空氣。
Photo: Tsai Wen-chu, Liberty Times
照片:自由時報記者蔡文居
高市為全台機車最多的都會區,總數達兩百二十六萬輛,包括五十八萬輛二行程機車,後者每年排放揮發性有機物估算約九千噸,幾乎與一座煉鋼廠年排放量相當。環保局長期推廣電動機車,苦於機車價格、充電問題、使用便利性等因素,成效始終不明顯,現階段僅一千七百餘部掛牌上路。
業者說明,該系統分待送、充電、滿電三區,民眾只要透過儲值卡扣款,經由電腦螢幕操作,把鋰電池放入交換站即可換得充滿電力的電池,過程僅幾分鐘。環保局在今年五月底前計畫建置卅處交換站,預估可服務五千輛電動機車。
除環保署補助購車費用與一萬元(三百三十八美元)電池交換儲值費用,環保局再加碼補助一萬兩千五百元(四百二十二美元),希望增加民眾購買、騎乘意願。技師表示,目前以最高時速八十公里概算,每輛車充滿電後可維持約一小時、亦即可騎約八十公里,而電池交換每回最多約五十元(一點六十九美元)。(自由時報記者王榮祥)
Rice is an essential ingredient in Taiwanese cuisine. Many foods are made of rice, adding more variety to our cooking, such as rice cake, or “gui.” Wagui is made by steaming rice flour batter in a bowl. The term “gui” refers to a type of food made from rice, while “wa” refers to a bowl. The pronunciation of “gui” in Taiwanese Hokkien is similar to the word for “nobility” in Chinese, so it is common for people to prepare various types of gui, including wagui, as offerings to the gods or ancestors,. 米是台灣重要的主食,用米製成的食品十分多元,豐富我們的飲食,如米做成的「粿」。粿的意思是米做成的糕點,碗粿是將在來米漿倒入碗中蒸熟,因而得名。粿因為音同「貴」,因此碗粿等粿食常用作供品祭拜神明和祖先。 nobility (n.) 高貴,高尚;貴族 offering (n.) 供品 While Taiwan may not be
It’s no secret that Japanese people have a deep affection for noodles. Like in the rest of East Asia, noodles are an important staple food, second only to rice. Japanese people have enjoyed noodles for over 1,000 years. The first noodles came from China and were introduced around 800 CE. As time passed, noodles in Japan not only became widespread but also developed some unique Japanese characteristics. The three most popular types of noodles in Japan are ramen, soba, and udon. Ramen, typically made from wheat flour, is usually thin and firm. The dough is kneaded and left to
On Tuesday last week, the flame for this summer’s Paris Olympics was lit at the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games in southern Greece in a meticulously choreographed ceremony. It will then be carried through Greece for more than 5,000km before being handed over to French organizers at the Athens venue used for the first modern Olympics in 1896. The pageantry at Olympia has been an essential part of every Olympics for nearly 90 years since the Games in Berlin. It’s meant to provide an ineluctable link between the modern event and the ancient Greek original on which it was initially modelled. Once
Drive-through (or drive-thru) restaurants provide people with the immense convenience of being able to purchase and pick up meals without needing to leave their vehicles. These restaurants have been around for decades, and their success has spawned a number of equally handy services. The drive-through concept originated with the drive-in restaurant, the first of which was established in the US in 1921. Patrons would order and eat the food that was delivered to their cars by workers called “carhops.” Ten years later, a drive-through service was introduced, but it was not until 1947 that the first exclusively drive-through restaurant opened its