A domestic aerospace company and train car manufacturer have teamed up to explore the electric bus market, and expect to unveil a new lightweight model seven months from now that they hope to market overseas.
Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (AIDC, 漢翔航空), a maker of military and civil aviation products, said in a statement yesterday that AIDC chairman Hu Kai-hung (胡開宏) had signed a strategic alliance memorandum of understanding with Tangeng Advanced Vehicles Co (TAV, 唐榮車輛) chairman Jonathan Ho (何義純).
TAV is Taiwan’s biggest maker of passenger and freight cars for railways, as well as commercial vehicles, such as buses and trucks.
Photo courtesy of Aerospace Industrial Development Corp
The two companies intend to build a low-floor bus that is fully electric, with special focus given to the construction of the vehicle control unit and the cable harness assembly, as well as the development of a lightweight structural frame, the statement said.
If successful, the bus would become Taiwan’s only fully electric, low-floor bus made from a lightweight aluminum alloy.
AIDC and TAV expect to begin selling the model in the first quarter of next year, the statement said.
Through the partnership, the firms aim to support the government’s goal of all long-distance passenger buses in Taiwan being electric and built domestically by 2030, Hu said in the statement.
However, the companies are also hoping to expand into international markets, such as Japan and the US.
Hu also said that the two firms were attempting to build a larger ecosystem to support the project’s development, adding that TAV signed a deal with Tatung Co (大同) earlier this year to provide some of the power systems for the planned bus.
Semiconductor stocks on Friday took a beating after a grim profit warning from Idaho-based Micron Technology Inc sparked fresh worries about the US’ earnings power as the country is potentially heading for a recession. Despite a broader stock market rally, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index dropped 3.8 percent after Micron, the largest maker of memory semiconductors in the US, flagged that demand was cooling for chips used in computers and smartphones. The index — which is home to US chip giants Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Nvidia Corp, as well as Micron — is down 38 percent this year. Historically, semiconductor
WHOLLY OWNED SUBSIDIARY: Costco Wholesale said it expected the purchase of the remaining 45 percent stake to add 1 to 1.5 percent to its earnings per share US-based Costco Wholesale Corp on Thursday said that it had purchased the remaining 45 percent stake in Costco President Taiwan Inc (台灣好市多) for US$1.05 billion, making the local company a fully-owned unit. “We estimate that the purchase would add about 1 to 1.5 percent to [our] earnings per share,” Costco said in a statement. Costco President Taiwan was established as a joint venture with Kaohsiung-based President Group (大統集團), which held a 45 percent stake. Since the first Costco store opened in Kaohsiung in 1997, 14 outlets have been set up in Taiwan, company data showed. PROFITABLE Three Costco stores in Taiwan — in Taipei’s Neihu
MOBILITY SOLUTIONS: Tata Technologies’ participation marks more progress in Hon Hai’s efforts to expand its ecosystem through the platform, the Taiwanese firm said India’s Tata Technologies Ltd has become the latest member of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co’s (鴻海精密) MIH Open Platform to jointly develop sustainable mobility solutions for customers worldwide, the Taiwanese company said yesterday. It might include embedded and electrical, electric platform development and battery management system solutions, among others, Hon Hai said. Tata Technologies’ participation marks more progress in Hon Hai’s efforts to expand its electric-vehicle (EV) ecosystem through the MIH platform, it said. The open platform has about 2,380 members around the world, with an aim to jointly develop EV ecosystems and shrink the time to market for products. Hon Hai made the
SOARING PROFITS: Semiconductors and shipping have knocked automaking and construction out of the 10 highest paying industries, stock exchange data showed Mobile phone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) posted an average of NT$5.15 million (US$173,249) in annual compensation for non-managerial employees last year, marking the highest among all firms listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE), exchange data showed. That is a 66 percent increase from the company’s average compensation of NT$3.08 million in 2020, as its earnings per share (EPS) expanded from NT$26.01 in 2020 to NT$70.56 last year. That is also three times higher than the average compensation of NT$1.7 million in the nation’s semiconductor industry, the data showed. The increases helped MediaTek advance its ranking from third in 2020, replacing
RSS