AUTOMAKERS
Faraday unveils prototype
The mystery electric car start-up Faraday Future, which seeks to “redefine mobility,” unveiled its first prototype vehicle on Monday while offering few details on its ownership and structure. The company took the wraps off its Batmobile-style vehicle, which is part of a plan to compete against the likes of Tesla Motors Inc and reshape the auto sector. “We are embarking on a complete rethink of what mobility is,” Faraday senior vice president of research and engineering Nick Sampson said as he unveiled the “FFZERO1” prototype car on the sidelines of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Sampson said Faraday intends to move “very fast” on its plans and has already announced a US$1 billion factory to be built near Las Vegas.
AUTOMAKERS
Hyundai China sales drop
Hyundai Motor Co posted its first annual sales drop in China since 2007 as a slowing economy and shift in consumer preferences to cheap sport utility vehicles (SUV) hurt demand for its sedan-heavy lineup. Deliveries fell 5.1 percent to 1.06 million vehicles last year, the company said in a statement. Toyota Motor Corp surpassed the South Korean automaker in China, after boosting sales by 8.7 percent to 1.12 million units. Hyundai chairman Chung Mong-koo this week said that he expects demand in China, the company’s largest market by volume, to stay weak as economic growth remains sluggish this year. The company plans to introduce a hybrid version of the Sonata sedan this year. SUV sales have led gains this year at the expense of traditional sedans.
AEROSPACE
Japan files to join WTO case
Japan has applied to observe WTO proceedings against China that the US initiated over alleged tax discrimination on imported airplanes, joining Canada and the EU in asking to participate as an interested third party. Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd, Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd and Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd are among major suppliers to Chicago-based aircraft manufacturer Boeing Co. The measures identified in the US complaint, lodged on Dec. 10 last year, could adversely affect parts from Japan used in airplanes destined for China, Japan said in a request it filed on Monday. The US alleges China imposes a 17 percent value-added tax on imported small and medium-sized airplanes, while exempting similar aircraft made in China.
SOFTWARE
Windows 10 deploys rapidly
Microsoft Corp’s new Windows 10 operating system is running on more than 200 million devices, putting the software on course for the fastest growth trajectory of any previous version as the company faces increasing competition from Apple Inc and Google. The software upgrade, which was released in July last year, is outpacing Windows 8 by almost 400 percent, according to a post on the Windows blog by Microsoft corporate vice president of Windows and Devices Group Yusuf Mehdi. This inches the company closer to its goal of having 1 billion devices running Windows 10 in 2018. The success of Windows 10 is key to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s strategy of building an ecosystem of gadgets and cloud-based software and services that work together — similar to the way that Apple’s and Google’s do. Microsoft is also counting on Windows to help restore growth to one of the company’s flagship businesses, as revenue from the PC operating system has fallen 19 percent in the past five years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Napoleon Osorio is proud of being the first taxi driver to have accepted payment in bitcoin in the first country in the world to make the cryptocurrency legal tender: El Salvador. He credits Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s decision to bank on bitcoin three years ago with changing his life. “Before I was unemployed... And now I have my own business,” said the 39-year-old businessman, who uses an app to charge for rides in bitcoin and now runs his own car rental company. Three years ago the leader of the Central American nation took a huge gamble when he put bitcoin
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
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