Kwang Yang Motor Co (光陽工業) has clinched a deal to help HCT Logistics Co (新竹物流) electrify its scooter fleet, the company said yesterday.
HCT Logistics plans to gradually replace its 1,000 gasoline-powered scooters with Kwang Yang’s Ionex electric models, starting in the nation’s six special municipalities, and it is also on track to retire its 3,000 gasoline-powered vans.
The deal also offers tailor-made tariffs for HCT riders using electric batteries at Kwang Yang’s swapping stations.
Photo: CNA
“With more battery swapping stations deployed, we are seeing more opportunities coming in,” Kwang Yang chairman Allen Ko (柯勝峰) said yesterday. “We are bullish about the growth potential in the commercial segment.”
Kwang Yang’s electric scooters are also used by Global Express Logistics Co (全球快遞), as well as scooter sharing service providers Wemo Corp (威摩科技) and Hotai Leasing Corp (和運租車), the company said.
Kwang Yang said it is working with Shihlin Electric & Engineering Corp (士林電機) to develop motors used in electric scooters. Shihlin Electric’s motors now power Kwang Yang’s S-series electric scooters.
Both Shillin Electric and HCT are subsidiaries of Yeangder Group (仰德集團).
Kwang Yang said it aims to add 600 more battery swapping stations next year to expand the number to 2,600 nationwide.
The company is also looking to boost the overseas sales of its electric scooters, Ko said, adding that the company next year would restart discussions with potential partners such as Grab Inc.
Looking forward, Ko said Taiwan’s scooter market is likely to see a 10 percent decline in sales next year as consumers become more conservative about spending on non-essential items amid a weakening economy and mounting uncertainty.
However, sales of electric scooters would make up a bigger share of the local scooter market next year, from about 11 percent of total sales of new scooters this year, he said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last