Honda Motor Co will soon set up shop in Taiwan, ending a 41-year partnership with Taiwan motorcycle-maker Sanyang Industrial Co (
Japan's second-largest automaker will initially spend NT$170 million to set up the subsidiary with operations beginning in March, said Satoshi Toshida (土志田諭), managing director of Honda, at a press conference yesterday in Taipei.
Honda has recently submitted an application to the government to establish the new company, called Honda Taiwan Co.
Toshida declined to spell out the reason for the break-up, saying only that the new firm will "reduce production costs" and "increase competitiveness."
The new entity will primarily manage Honda's motorcycle and automobile sales, after-sales services and spare-parts supply in Taiwan.
"At the same time, it is very important for Honda to devote itself further to building its brand image in Taiwan, both in its motorcycle and automobile businesses," Toshida said.
The Japanese executive, however, didn't elaborate on whether Honda will set up a manufacturing site or seek another local manufacturing partner, saying it will import cars and motorbikes from Japan and other areas during the initial period.
Since 1961 Honda has been working with Sanyang in making and marketing the Japanese brand of motorcycles and cars -- including the popular Accord and Civic models -- in Taiwan. But in recent years, the Taiwanese company has become a well-known motorcycle maker and a competitor to Honda.
Admitting that its partnership with Honda had broken up, San-yang said it will announce possible partners by the end of this month, said company spokesman Yeh Feng-ming (
"We began searching for a new partner in the middle of last year. With 40 years in this line of business, we have no intention to exit the market," Yeh said.
Yeh added that Honda's decision to end the partnership is in line with its global business strategy.
"Honda wants to establish a concrete organization worldwide with the appropriate resources; therefore they wanted to have direct control of Taiwan retail operations," Yeh said.
"We refused the offer," he added. Currently Honda holds a 12.52 percent stake in Sanyang.
But an industry source told the Taipei Times that Honda was aiming to take more control of Sanyang's board in order to help stem a slide in Taiwan sales as rivals expand imports following the nation's admission to the WTO on Jan. 1.
Honda's sales in Taiwan fell 44 percent last year to about 20,000 units, according to Honda.
"Honda will be experiencing short-term pain due to the lack of a domestic sales network. But since Honda is a strong and respected brand, we don't think the problem will be prolonged," said Yang Hsiang-chuan (
But there's not going to be a significant impact on Taiwan's import car market as Honda cars made up less than 1.5 percent of total number of cars sold last year, Yang added.
Taiwan's automobile market contracted a sharp 17.4 percent last year, with about 347,000 cars being sold, down from more than 400,000 in the previous year. Meanwhile, the market for import cars in Taiwan shrank by 11.5 percent last year, though cars imported from Europe and Japan fared better than cars imported from the US and Korea, local media reported last week.
The paramount chief of a volcanic island in Vanuatu yesterday said that he was “very impressed” by a UN court’s declaration that countries must tackle climate change. Vanuatu spearheaded the legal case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, which on Wednesday ruled that countries have a duty to protect against the threat of a warming planet. “I’m very impressed,” George Bumseng, the top chief of the Pacific archipelago’s island of Ambrym, told reporters in the capital, Port Vila. “We have been waiting for this decision for a long time because we have been victims of this climate change for
MASSIVE LOSS: If the next recall votes also fail, it would signal that the administration of President William Lai would continue to face strong resistance within the legislature The results of recall votes yesterday dealt a blow to the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) efforts to overturn the opposition-controlled legislature, as all 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers survived the recall bids. Backed by President William Lai’s (賴清德) DPP, civic groups led the recall drive, seeking to remove 31 out of 39 KMT lawmakers from the 113-seat legislature, in which the KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) together hold a majority with 62 seats, while the DPP holds 51 seats. The scale of the recall elections was unprecedented, with another seven KMT lawmakers facing similar votes on Aug. 23. For a
Taiwan must invest in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics to keep abreast of the next technological leap toward automation, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said at the luanch ceremony of Taiwan AI and Robots Alliance yesterday. The world is on the cusp of a new industrial revolution centered on AI and robotics, which would likely lead to a thorough transformation of human society, she told an event marking the establishment of a national AI and robotics alliance in Taipei. The arrival of the next industrial revolution could be a matter of years, she said. The pace of automation in the global economy can
All 24 lawmakers of the main opposition Chinese Nationalists Party (KMT) on Saturday survived historical nationwide recall elections, ensuring that the KMT along with Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers will maintain opposition control of the legislature. Recall votes against all 24 KMT lawmakers as well as Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) and KMT legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁) failed to pass, according to Central Election Commission (CEC) figures. In only six of the 24 recall votes did the ballots cast in favor of the recall even meet the threshold of 25 percent of eligible voters needed for the recall to pass,