HSBC Bank Taiwan Ltd (匯豐台灣商銀) has offered Gogoro Inc (睿能創意) a green loan to purchase energy-efficient products, marking the bank’s first green loan to an electric scooter manufacturer.
Although many people think green loans are exclusive to renewable energy developers, they actually have a broader application, and are extended to any business that can improve the environment, HSBC Taiwan commercial banking head Stanley Hsiao (蕭仲程) told the Taipei Times on Aug. 13.
“Whether a business can reduce carbon emissions or lower its fuel consumption are not the only criteria we use to determine whether to approve a green loan. We also take into account its deployment of energy-efficient technology as important and helpful to the environment,” Hsiao said.
Photo: Reuters
The latter makes a case for Gogoro, which does not directly use green energy to power its battery-swapping stations, but utilizes many energy-efficient components for its electric scooters, including a core component battery, he said.
To avoid having the funds used for just any environmentally friendly expenditure, the bank has required Gogoro to use the funds only for battery purchases and to routinely track the fund flow to check “if the money is being spent in the right place,” he added.
Hsiao did not disclose the size of the loan extended to the electric scooter maker due to a confidentiality agreement, saying only that the figure would be in the middle level of all green loans or sustainability-linked loans HSBC Bank Taiwan has offered.
The bank has also provided green loans or regular corporate loans to local suppliers of electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc, but the loan to Gogoro is the first to an electric scooter maker, he said.
Hsiao said he holds a conservative outlook for the growth of green loans, because compared with sustainability-linked loans, green loans have stricter rules for banks and their corporate clients.
Sustainability-linked loans allow loan-takers to use the funds for general corporate purposes, not just green projects, he said.
Given the stricter criteria for green loans, banks need to carefully communicate to clients what kinds of projects they can spend the money on and to keep on following their progress, he said.
That partly explains why sustainability-linked loans have grown faster than green loans in Taiwan, he said.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said that its research institute has launched its first advanced artificial intelligence (AI) large language model (LLM) using traditional Chinese, with technology assistance from Nvidia Corp. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), said the LLM, FoxBrain, is expected to improve its data analysis capabilities for smart manufacturing, and electric vehicle and smart city development. An LLM is a type of AI trained on vast amounts of text data and uses deep learning techniques, particularly neural networks, to process and generate language. They are essential for building and improving AI-powered servers. Nvidia provided assistance
GREAT SUCCESS: Republican Senator Todd Young expressed surprise at Trump’s comments and said he expects the administration to keep the program running US lawmakers who helped secure billions of dollars in subsidies for domestic semiconductor manufacturing rejected US President Donald Trump’s call to revoke the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, signaling that any repeal effort in the US Congress would fall short. US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who negotiated the law, on Wednesday said that Trump’s demand would fail, while a top Republican proponent, US Senator Todd Young, expressed surprise at the president’s comments and said he expects the administration to keep the program running. The CHIPS Act is “essential for America leading the world in tech, leading the world in AI [artificial
DOMESTIC SUPPLY: The probe comes as Donald Trump has called for the repeal of the US$52.7 billion CHIPS and Science Act, which the US Congress passed in 2022 The Office of the US Trade Representative is to hold a hearing tomorrow into older Chinese-made “legacy” semiconductors that could heap more US tariffs on chips from China that power everyday goods from cars to washing machines to telecoms equipment. The probe, which began during former US president Joe Biden’s tenure in December last year, aims to protect US and other semiconductor producers from China’s massive state-driven buildup of domestic chip supply. A 50 percent US tariff on Chinese semiconductors began on Jan. 1. Legacy chips use older manufacturing processes introduced more than a decade ago and are often far simpler than
Gasoline and diesel prices this week are to decrease NT$0.5 and NT$1 per liter respectively as international crude prices continued to fall last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to decrease to NT$29.2, NT$30.7 and NT$32.7 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, while premium diesel is to cost NT$27.9 per liter at CPC stations and NT$27.7 at Formosa pumps, the companies said in separate statements. Global crude oil prices dropped last week after the eight OPEC+ members said they would
RSS