Vehicle and motorcycle maker Sanyang Motor Co (三陽工業) plans to build a battery plant in Tainan for NT$1 billion (US$32.12 million), the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) reported on Tuesday, quoting company chairman Wu Chin-yuan (吳清源).
The battery plant would be in a green energy park in the Shalun area (沙崙) in Tainan’s Gueiren District (歸仁), Wu told the Liberty Times, adding that construction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of next year.
Sanyang aims to produce batteries for vehicles at the plant, Wu said.
The company also plans to make batteries used in energy storage devices for base stations, he told the newspaper.
The company yesterday confirmed the plan, but declined to elaborate.
APh ePower Co (亞福儲能), in which Sanyang invests, has collaborated with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (工研院) to make aluminum-ion batteries for electric vehicles, an official at the institute told the Taipei Times by telephone.
The official, who asked to remain anonymous, declined to give a time frame for the release of the aluminum-ion batteries.
Sanyang also plans to release two new electric scooters in the first quarter of next year, Wu told the Liberty Times.
“Our two new light electric scooters, which are expected to enter the market in the first quarter of next year, will be equipped with 1.34 to 5 horsepower engines,” Wu said.
Their price tags would be lower than many of their peers on the market and they would be “affordable” by most people, as the company aims to increase its market share, he added.
Wu told the newspaper that the company is also developing a large electric motorcycle, with an engine of 5 to 40 horsepower, but its launch schedule depends on its battery collaborator, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油).
Approached by the Taipei Times, Sanyang yesterday said that the three new scooters are still under development, without elaborating.
The company plans to use its in-house batteries to power the new electric scooters, it said.
Sanyang’s cumulative revenue in the first five months of this year increased 3.67 percent to NT$13.76 billion from NT$13.27 billion a year earlier.
The company attributed the increase to the launch of two new gasoline-powered scooters, the FNX 125 ABS and the Jet 125 ABS, in April.
As for four-wheelers, the company said it plans to release new models of its Porter truck this month.
It would also launch a new model of the Santa Fe luxury recreational vehicle and a new electric vehicle in the second half, it added.
Sanyang shares yesterday rose 0.22 percent to close at NT$22.8 in Taipei trading.
They have risen 14 percent this year.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday obtained the government’s approval to inject an additional US$10.26 billion to finance the construction of its second fab in Kumamoto, Japan, and a second fab in Arizona, using advanced process technologies. The Department of Investment Review approved TSMC’s investment applications on the basis that Taiwan remains a major technology and manufacturing hub for the chipmaker, which makes its most advanced chips at home, the company operates its research-and-development center here and the majority of its capacity remains in Taiwan. The latest capital injections — US$5.26 billion for its Japanese venture Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing
DIVERSIFYING: Following customers’ demand to improve supply chain resilience, ASE is looking for sites in the US, Japan and Mexico, a company executive said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it plans to launch a new high-end chip testing fab in the US next month to better serve its key customers based in North America, particularly California-based artificial intelligence (AI) customers. The new US testing facility would be operated by the firm’s subsidiary ISE Labs Inc, it said. ASE’s major customers, and high-ranking US officials and representatives from American Institute in Taiwan are to attend the fab’s opening ceremony on July 12, it said. ISE Labs last year acquired a 5,942m2 facility in San
Local companies believe that nearly a third of all job opportunities will vanish in 10 years due to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), according to a survey released by online job bank yes123 on Tuesday. In the survey of 1,016 companies on the labor market’s third quarter outlook, the job bank focused in part on AI’s impact on workers and asked companies what percentage of jobs they felt would be lost to AI’s round-the-clock productivity and high-speed computing prowess. Respondents felt on average that 29.2 percent of job opportunities would be lost to AI over the next 10 years, but there
Taiwanese workers earned an average of NT$47,000 per month this year, but 40 percent are struggling financially and 18 percent plan to switch jobs within 12 months, two separate surveys showed yesterday. The amount equals a 5.4 percent increase from a year earlier to a decade high, 104 Job Bank (104人力銀行) said. The government is due to review the nation’s minimum wages. Employees at computer and consumer electronics manufacturers reported the highest average monthly wage of NT$60,000 a month, followed by semiconductor firms at NT$59,000, and vendors of shoe and textile products, along with software and Internet businesses at NT$55,000, 104 Job