The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday gave awards to eight “green” car models and seven types of scooter to reward manufacturers for making environmentally friendly vehicles and to encourage consumers to purchase them.
“We hope that when people buy new cars, in addition to price, functionality and looks, they also consider a car’s environmental impact,” said Yang Ching-shi (楊慶熙) director-general of the EPA’s department of air quality protection and noise control.
Yang said the EPA had reviewed the specifications of 165 cars on the market and found that eight met “three lows” criteria — low fuel consumption, low noise levels and low gas emissions.
In the first category (1,800cc or lower), the Toyota Prius (1,497cc) topped the list with 24.7km per liter of gas. The Smart Fortwo Coupe, Suzuki SX4, Nissan Tiida and Mercedes-Benz B170 also fared well with fuel efficiency ranging from 13.4km per liter to 20.4km per liter.
The second category (1,801cc to 2,400cc) included only one model — the Toyota Corolla Altis, which has a fuel efficiency of 13.8km per liter.
Both third category (2,401cc and above) car models were Lexus hybrids: the Lexus RX400H and the Lexus GS450H. The cars run for 13.8km to 14.8km per liter of gas.
“Though the Lexus 400H and GS450H have high emission levels, they still have good fuel efficiency and are relatively ‘clean’ in terms of waste gas emissions … All in all, hybrid cars fare very well in terms of being green,” Yang said.
Though the efficiency comes with a steep price tag — the hybrid models range from NT$1.2 million (US$34,700) to NT$3.1 million, while the Suzuki SX4, Nissan Tiida and Toyota Corolla Altis start from about NT$600,000 — potential car buyers may get a good deal right now as the economy is struggling.
“[In the current global economic state] it is a buyer’s market,” said Steven Yang (楊湘泉) the general manager of Toyota’s external affairs division. “The range for negotiating is very large.”
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching