Kwang Yang Motor Co (
The bikes have already proven market ready with the company shipping over 19,000 units abroad, mainly to Europe, over the last two years.
As for world-class brands such as Harley-Davison of the US and Kawasaki of Japan, big-bike enthusiasts may need to wait until early next year before they hit the road, a Kwang Yang executive said yesterday.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
"Since imported brands still need to get through some government red tape on licensing and emission rules, they may not appear on the market until January or February," said Wang Son-chien (
Kwang Yang bikes have already passed Taiwan's emission and noise tests conducted by the Environmental Protection Administration, he said.
Taiwan outlawed the importation, use and registration of bikes larger then 125cc in 1982. But following the nation's accession into WTO earlier this year, three major motorcycle manufacturers -- Kwang Yang, Sanyang Industrial Co (
According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, it is estimated that domestic demand for larger bikes will reach around 20,000 units annually, with total sales of between NT$3 billion and NT$4 billion.
"But because of new government regulations which ban bigger bikes from operating on highways and in car-only lanes, we predict that demand will reach only 12,000 units a year," Wang said.
If the government scraps the road-use regulation, the demand for bigger bikes may surge up to 30,000 units a year, Wang said.
Kwang Yang expects to grab at least a 30-percent share of the domestic market, on sales of 30 bikes a month or more, he said.
In addition, Kwang Yang is in talks with Harley-Davison and Kawasaki in an effort to import their 450cc-and-above bikes into Taiwan, spokesman Chen Fu-an (陳福安) said.
Sanyang is also in talks with Harley, according to company spokesman Yeh Feng-ming (葉峰明).
"We are discussing being the general sales agent for Harley-Davison, but we are also in talks with Aprilia [motorcycles] of Italy."
Sanyang is currently conducting noise and emisson tests on its bigger bikes and is planning to launch a 180cc model sometime in September, Yeh said.
Cairo’s new monorail slices across the city skyline, running above the familiar chaos of blaring horns and aging buses’ exhaust fumes that mark rush hour below. The US$4.5 billion monorail, opened this month, is among Egypt’s most prominent new transport projects, part of a debt-funded infrastructure drive criticized for sapping state finances while bringing limited benefits to most of the country’s 109 million people. “It feels like you’re in a different country,” said Ramy Sayed, a restaurant manager, aboard a driverless Innovia 300 train. “No noise, no traffic, we’re not used to this.” The eastern line runs 56km from the bustling middle-class
Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) today unveiled a long-haul network expansion plan at a shareholders’ meeting in Taipei, including direct flights to Barcelona, Spain, and Zurich, Switzerland, as well as a service connecting Taipei, Sydney and New Zealand. Starlux is to become the first Taiwanese carrier to offer non-stop services to the two European cities, while the inaugural oceanic route is expected to expand transit opportunities within the Australia-New Zealand market, Starlux said. Flight services to Chicago, Dallas, Washington and New York are under evaluation, the airline added. Prior to the shareholders’ meeting, the airline earlier this year announced that it would be
Taiwanese prosecutors suspect that three people successfully smuggled at least one shipment of Nvidia Corp artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China after first exporting them to Japan, people familiar with the matter said. The trio was detained last week by the Keelung District Prosecutors’ Office for allegedly falsifying documents related to exports of Super Micro Computer Inc servers containing advanced Nvidia chips, which the US has barred from sale to China without a license from Washington. The move marked Taiwan’s first public crackdown on AI chip diversion after years of pressure from the US to take a more active role in curtailing
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) employee bonuses are likely to grow more than 30 percent this year, in line with the past few years as the company’s profits continue to set new records, an anonymous source cited TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) as saying yesterday. TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, is committed to taking care of its workers, the source said, citing Wei’s meeting with employees yesterday morning. Wei also expressed gratitude to employees for their contribution to the company’s improving bottom line, the source added. Since 2023, TSMC’s employee bonuses have grown at an annual rate of
RSS