The Taipei City Government has added 16 electric buses to its fleet, in a push to cut carbon emissions and noise pollution, the Taipei Department of Transportation told a news conference on Monday.
Shin-Shin Bus, a bus operator, has replaced 16 diesel-powered buses, which served the 236 and 251 shuttle lines, with electric vehicles, department Director Chen Hsueh-tai (陳學台) said, adding that the move was part of a planned decommissioning of aging buses.
Under the Executive Yuan directive for replacing all urban public buses with electric vehicles by 2030, Taipei began introducing electric buses to its fleet in 2018 and expects to have put 529 electric buses on the road by 2022, he said.
Photo: Tsai Szu-pei, Taipei Times
Prices for diesel-engined buses, which cost about NT$5 million (US$175,396) per vehicle, are initially cheaper than electric buses, but they pollute, require more expensive servicing and are more expensive to operate, Chen said.
Due to engine noise and vibrations, they are less comfortable for passengers, he added.
Electric buses cost from NT$10 million to NT$12 million, but they save costs, and offer more comfort and safety, he said.
Advanced driver-assistance system, which are standard on electric buses, could warn the driver of dangerous situations, for example when the gap between the bus and other vehicles is too small, when the driver unintentionally leaves a lane or drives at excessive speed, Chen said.
Taipei’s low-floored diesel buses are typically used for eight years, while properly maintained electric buses are expected to remain in service for about 12 years, he said.
Taipei this year granted subsidies to bus operators for the purchase of 258 electric buses and requested central government subsidies for 223 more vehicles, in a bid to meet the 2022 targets, Chen said.
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
RSS