Keelung Mayor-elect Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) on Sunday said he intends to follow through on a campaign promise to give Gogoro scooters to young people who volunteer, starting no later than 2024.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate proposed the policy to promote electric vehicles and encourage young people to volunteer.
After he won the vote with a nearly 14-point lead over his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) rival Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應), residents took to Hsieh’s Facebook to ask whether the pledge would be implemented.
Photo: CNA
Hsieh on Sunday said he would try to add the promise to next year’s budget, which was drafted before the election.
If it is not possible, he said it would “definitely” be included in the 2024 budget.
People aged 19 to 33 years old who have volunteered for a social welfare cause would be eligible, he said.
They must also have lived in Keelung for at least three years and have had a driver’s license for at least one year, he said.
Those looking to trade in an older scooter would be given priority, he said, adding that not everyone who is eligible would receive a free scooter.
He also said that he would not rule out working with other makers of electric scooters, such as Aeon Motor or Kymco.
Hsieh said he would implement the proposal by increasing municipal revenue and set aside a four-year budget of NT$1.5 billion (US$48.37 billion) for the policy.
During the campaign, Tsai and DPP Keelung Mayor Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) criticized the proposal as an empty promise that is untenable under the city’s budget.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) yesterday also criticized the idea, saying that his ministry does not subsidize vehicles for private citizens.
Hsieh responded saying funding would come from the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), not the transport ministry.
His spokesperson later clarified that funding would come from the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) and the MOEA’s Industrial Development Bureau.
The MOEA yesterday said that its current NT$7,000 subsidy for purchasing an electric scooter is the same nationwide.
“There is no separate subsidy for a single city or county,” it said, adding that a city must determine the budget itself if it wishes to implement such a policy.
Bureau spokesman Yang Chih-ching (楊志清) said that some local governments use part of the EPA’s clean air budget to give an additional electric vehicle subsidy.
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