Formosa Automobile Sales Corp (台塑汽車) is developing batteries in-house to prepare for production of its own electric trucks, which are expected to hit the market in 2022, company chairman Chen Sheng-kuang (陳勝光) said yesterday.
Speaking at an event to promoting the DAF CF Euro 6 trucks, Chen said that the company, a subsidiary of Formosa Plastics Group (FPG, 台塑集團), has been working on e-truck development for some time in anticipation of robust demand.
FPG founders Wang Yung-ching (王永慶) and Wang Yung-tsai (王永在), who died in 2008 and 2014 respectively, predicted that electric vehicles would become the dominant method of transportation, which is why Formosa Automobile has steadily invested in electric-vehicle batteries, Chen said.
Photo: Chang Hui-wen, Taipei Times
The company is planning to produce 6.5-tonne and 12-tonne e-trucks, and a 10-tonne e-bus, he said.
The heavier e-truck is being designed on an existing frame, with the addition of an electric motor, electronic control systems and batteries, he said.
Formosa Automobile would begin to assemble and test a prototype in June next year and it hopes the vehicle can hit the local market in 2022, Chen said.
The lighter e-truck and the e-bus are scheduled to enter the market from 2022 to 2025 respectively, he said.
The company has handled the marketing, sales and production of DAF trucks in Taiwan since 2005.
Chen said that the company reached a milestone this year when it sold its 10,000th DAF truck after 15 years in the local market.
The firm forecast that it would take another six years to sell another 10,000 DAF trucks locally.
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