Yulon Nissan Co Ltd (裕隆日產汽車) and the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology signed a memorandum of cooperation to promote design innovation and resource sharing during the opening ceremony of the fourth annual Yulon Nissan Automobile Design Competition yesterday.
The competition attracts teams of students and professors from universities and colleges across the country. Its popularity has risen since its inception, with 48 schools having entered the contest. A total of 474 teams and about 1,500 participants participated last year.
"The competition is intended to promote innovation, as innovation is the way of the future, as well as the key to success in the international market. It must be promoted in schools," Yulon Nissan president Wu Hsin-fa (
The university will work with Yulon Nissan in promoting mechanical design, information technology, research, academics, as well as sharing equipment and library resources, to benefit students who aspire to become car designers, university president Chen Shi-shuenn (陳希舜) said.
The domestic car design industry is able to tackle minor exterior and interior design changes satisfactorily, but local facilities, experience and resources are not enough when it comes to mechanical testing and design, Steven Yang (楊湘泉), spokesman for Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), said by telephone.
Another industry veteran agreed, citing a limited domestic market.
"The domestic market is too small to support a full-fledged car design industry," said Chen Chun-liang (
Sales of new vehicles fell 10.8 percent year-on-year to 326,000 units last year, marking the lowest number of vehicles sold in two decades, data released earlier this month by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications showed.
"Car design is a very specialized field, composed of only a select group of people from major car design centers in Japan, Europe and the United States," Koju Huang (黃興儒), general manager of Yulon Nissan Design Center, said on the sidelines of the ceremony.
"It is not easy for students in Taiwan -- or any other country -- to become car designers without undertaking specialist training in these places," Huang said.
Taiwan could develop an advantage in car design if its competitiveness in Internet and communications technology could be integrated with the automobile industry, said Jeng Jeng-ywan (鄭正元), dean of the university's office of research and development.
Students interested in joining the competition have until April 13 to sign up.
‘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