Electric vehicle (EV) battery maker ProLogium Technology Co (輝能科技) would continue to expand its operations in Taiwan despite announcing it would build a new “gigafactory” in France, company founder and chief executive officer Vincent Yang (楊思枏) said yesterday.
“It is clear that we are rooted in Taiwan, and [we are] expanding overseas on a foundation built in Taiwan,” Yang told a news conference cohosted by the French Office in Taipei.
The company’s first gigafactory in Taoyuan would be ready for mass production at the end of this year, he said, adding that it would be a “demonstration model” as ProLogium seeks to expand its production overseas.
Photo: CNA
ProLogium has doubled its workforce in Taoyuan to more than 800 over the past year and that number is expected to surpass 1,000 by the end of the year, he said.
Yang last month announced an investment of US$5.7 billion in France.
The solid-state battery manufacturer founded in Taiwan in 2006 would build a plant with production capacity of 48 gigawatt-hours, and a research and development center in Dunkirk in northern France, which is where several EV makers and battery solution providers are based.
By expanding its presence in France, ProLogium would be able to provide batteries to EV and non-EV manufacturers in Europe, and get easier access to raw materials provided by European suppliers, Yang said
Construction of the gigafactory in Dunkirk, which is to be ProLogium’s first overseas plant, is expected to start next year, with production of next-generation batteries projected to begin in 2027.
He declined to provide details on the subsidies to be provided by the French government, saying talks on the issue were still being finalized.
Jean-Francois Casabonne-Masonnave, head of the French Office in Taipei, said that Paris has always provided subsidies to foreign companies investing in France in accordance with EU law.
Francois Cotier, director of Business France Taiwan, later told reporters that France welcomes Taiwanese investment in the nation, especially investment focused on biotechnology, e-mobility and other advanced technologies.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained