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.
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