Hota Industrial Manufacturing Co Ltd (和大工業), a Taiwanese company that manufactures and sells gears and axles for electric vehicles, including Tesla models, on Wednesday announced that it would partner with New Mexico to build a facility in the US state’s industrial park.
Hota, which has numerous North American and European clients, made a formal announcement on Wednesday in Taipei that it would invest approximately US$99 million to build its first manufacturing plant outside of Asia in New Mexico’s Santa Teresa Borderplex industrial park.
“Hota has long been committed to the research, development and manufacturing of alternative energy power train components, and our successful collaboration with renowned EV makers has positioned us as a long-term strategic partner for leading EV companies in the US,” Hota chairman David Shen (沈國榮) said.
Photo: Teng Yu-hua, Taipei Times
Hota CEO Holly Shen (沈千慈) said the construction of the facility in New Mexico is scheduled to begin in early next year, with full-scale production set to begin in the second quarter of 2025.
Hota’s expansion in New Mexico has been aided by the state government, which has helped it locate 12.14 hectares of land and provided a US$3 million “state job investment,” New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham said.
The company would also be eligible for “several additional tax credit opportunities, including training for employees and manufacturing tax credits,” Grisham said.
David Shen said Hota’s decision to build the facility in the US had been spurred by geopolitical factors that have disrupted the global supply chain.
He said he had been considering three US states to potentially invest in, but chose New Mexico after taking into account a variety of factors including “location, utility supplies, the cost of doing business, transportation infrastructure, wages, tax rates, land cost and availability, construction, the crime rate and the weather.”
When asked about the incentives to establish a facility in New Mexico, David Shen said the US$3 million is for the basic infrastructure of the facility such as electricity and fire control, and that other subsidies for local employees’ wages would also be available — every local worker hired is subsidized with 1,450 hours of pay, which equals about one year.
There is also a federal government subsidy for electric vehicles produced in the US.
Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) today unveiled a long-haul network expansion plan at a shareholders’ meeting in Taipei, including direct flights to Barcelona, Spain, and Zurich, Switzerland, as well as a service connecting Taipei, Sydney and New Zealand. Starlux is to become the first Taiwanese carrier to offer non-stop services to the two European cities, while the inaugural oceanic route is expected to expand transit opportunities within the Australia-New Zealand market, Starlux said. Flight services to Chicago, Dallas, Washington and New York are under evaluation, the airline added. Prior to the shareholders’ meeting, the airline earlier this year announced that it would be
Cairo’s new monorail slices across the city skyline, running above the familiar chaos of blaring horns and aging buses’ exhaust fumes that mark rush hour below. The US$4.5 billion monorail, opened this month, is among Egypt’s most prominent new transport projects, part of a debt-funded infrastructure drive criticized for sapping state finances while bringing limited benefits to most of the country’s 109 million people. “It feels like you’re in a different country,” said Ramy Sayed, a restaurant manager, aboard a driverless Innovia 300 train. “No noise, no traffic, we’re not used to this.” The eastern line runs 56km from the bustling middle-class
Netherlands-based semiconductor equipment supplier ASML Holding NV yesterday said that it is planning to hire an additional 1,000 people in Taiwan this year in response to growing demand from clients. ASML had previously planned to recruit 600 people this year, but that the plan has been adjusted upward, ASML vice president and ASML Taiwan general manager Grace Wang (汪佳慧) told reporters. ASML has a workforce of more than 4,500 in Taiwan, accounting for about 10 percent of its global total, Wang said. This year’s recruitment campaign would focus on adding people in the customer support, manufacturing and supply chain domains to assist ASML
Nvidia Corp yesterday announced that CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) would attend an employee meeting in Taipei tomorrow to celebrate the launch of the company’s Taiwan headquarters project. Huang would attend a gathering at the site of Nvidia’s planned headquarters in Beitou Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區), the company said in a statement. After arriving in Taiwan on Saturday last week, Huang told reporters that he plans to meet with Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), and would attend the groundbreaking ceremony for Nvidia’s Taiwan headquarters tomorrow. Nvidia has not yet applied
RSS