Within the next couple years smart-control technology could make downtown cities cleaner as hybrid scooters switch from polluting petrol to electric power in crowded central districts if a Tainan-based green energy developer has its way.
With a NT$30 million grant from the government, Ji Ee Industry Co (
"The hybrid scooters will use a pure electric motor downtown to reduce emissions, and then when they go to the suburbs they can transform to gasoline," Jie Ee deputy vice president Charles Chiu (
A built-in computer system will sense when the scooter's speed drops below 25kph and automatically switch over to electric power, Chiu said.
This country has one of the highest concentrations of scooters in the world with over 10 million on the roads here in a population of 23 million, according to government estimates.
Last year, 600,000 new vehicles were added to the previous year's figures, Chiu said.
To prevent Taiwan's cities from choking under an ever increasing blanket of smog, the government offered hand-outs of NT$4,000 to everyone who bought electrically powered scooters, but canceled the scheme last year when less than 5 percent showed interest.
"Electric scooters don't have the range of gasoline ones," Chiu said.
"Our electric model has a range of 60km before it needs recharging. That means an effective radius of 30km, and most people didn't think that would be enough."
The government's new scheme to cut back on emissions is to funnel the electric scooter hand-out fund into reducing emissions through fuel injected engines.
Chiu worries this won't cut emissions enough in inner cities, which is why he secured government funding for the hybrid engine.
"Electric engines have zero emissions which is essential to reduce pollution in cities," Chiu said.
"In the suburbs the bikes can use the gasoline engine as there is more space. This has the added benefit that the gas engine can recharge the electric motor, eliminating the range problem of a purely electric model," he said.
Ji Ee's sister company, Eton Solar Tech Co (益通光能科技) is also trying to cash in on green energy.
The company makes solar cells for use in power-generating panels that appear on roofs, buildings, toys and consumer electronic goods such as calculators.
The government offers up to 50 percent of the cost of installing solar panels and a further 5 percent to 20-percent tax reduction for corporations that choose to go green with solar energy, Eton Solar's spokeswoman Ivette Chien (
The worldwide demand for solar energy increased by 32 percent last year from 390.52 megawatts (MW) in 2001 to 512.22MW last year, according to the solar industry's Photovoltaic Magazine.
Eton's solar cells are expected to produce 9MW of energy this year, but the company hopes to increase production to between 20MW and 30MW next year.
The company is also researching new solar technologies that may one day bring us an energy producing film that can be stuck to a window to produce electricity, Eton Group vice president Tsai Chin-yao (
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
RSS