The nation’s first domestically manufactured electric bus was shown to the public yesterday at a seminar organized by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) on technologies that reduce carbon dioxide emissions from motor vehicles.
The bus is powered by a Li-ion battery that can be fully charged within an hour and can travel between 300km and 400km on each charge. The battery can be recharged up to 5,000 times and the bus can travel at a speed of up to 100kph.
EPA Minister Stephen Shen (沈世宏), reporters and several public bus operators were invited to ride the bus. The ride went smoothly and was extremely quiet.
PHOTO: CNA
Shen said the electric bus is sure to be in high demand, as the world is striving to conserve energy and reduce carbon emissions.
He said that bus developer PowerTech Auto Tech Corp (寶捷汽車) hoped to gain orders from overseas companies.
PowerTech chairman Raymond Tsai (蔡篤雄) said the bus is expected to pass safety tests this year and go into mass production next year. Each bus costs approximately NT$12 million (US$345,000), which is about twice as much as a diesel-powered bus.
Meanwhile, the Directorate General of Highways has proposed that highway bus operators be allowed to raise ticket prices by approximately 20 percent as operational costs have risen.
COLLABORATION: As TSMC is building an advanced wafer fab in Dresden, Germany, it needs to build a comprehensive supply chain in Europe, Joseph Wu said Taiwan is planning to team up with the Czech Republic to build a semiconductor cluster in the European country, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said on Friday. Wu, who led a Taiwanese delegation at the annual GLOBSEC Forum held in Prague from Friday to today, said in a news conference that Taiwan seeks to foster cooperation between Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) and its counterparts in Czechia. Such cooperation is expected to transform the country into one of the most important semiconductor clusters in Europe over the next three to five years, he added. As TSMC is building an advanced
A joint declaration by Pacific leaders was reissued yesterday morning with mentions of Taiwan removed after China slammed an earlier version as a “mistake” that “must be corrected.” After five days of talks in Tonga, a “cleared” communique was released on Friday that reaffirmed a 30-year-old agreement allowing Taiwan to take part in the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF). However, the wording immediately raised the ire of Chinese diplomats, who piled pressure on Pacific leaders to amend the document. The forum reissued the communique without explanation yesterday morning, conspicuously deleting the paragraph concerning the bloc’s “relations with Taiwan.” “It must be a
China lacks the ability to “fully” invade Taiwan as it does not have the equipment, but is bringing online advanced new weapons and has other options to threaten Taiwan, such as inspecting foreign cargo ships, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said yesterday. In an annual threat assessment of China sent to lawmakers, a copy of which was reviewed by Reuters, the ministry said Beijing continues to hone skills such as joint command operations. “However, the use of tactics and strategies against Taiwan is still limited by the natural geographical environment of the Taiwan Strait and insufficient landing equipment and logistic capabilities,”
A tropical depression in waters east of the Philippines could develop into a tropical storm as soon as today and bring rainfall as it approaches, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, while issuing heat warnings for 14 cities and counties. Weather model simulations show that there are still considerable differences in the path that the tropical depression is projected to take. It might pass through the Bashi Channel to the South China Sea or turn northeast and move toward the sea south of Japan, CWA forecaster Yeh Chih-chun (葉致均) said, adding that the uncertainty of its movement is still high,