Climate change and environmental protection have become issues of great concern to governments around the world. In line with this trend, most New Southbound Policy partners, including ASEAN nations and India, are working hard to promote the electric vehicle (EV) industry, establishing supply chains and building public infrastructure for the EV sector.
With a land area of 4.46 million square kilometers and a population of more than 650 million people, the 10 ASEAN member nations form the third-largest market in the world.
In 2019, before the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, ASEAN nations produced 4.2 million vehicles and 3.6 million motorcycles, making them the world’s most promising vehicle markets.
India is a world leader in in terms of the introduction of EVs and their legislation. Under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles in India scheme, 30 percent of newly licensed motor vehicles and 60 percent of public transportation vehicles must be electric by 2030.
India’s cities have nearly 1.7 million buses, while 3 million are needed to meet demand. Moreover, about 100,000 buses need to be replaced every year. As 60 percent of India’s buses must be fully electric within eight years, there is clearly a huge demand for electric buses.
Taiwan’s Digital New Southbound Policy is precisely about realizing a “package technology export” business model, based on the nation’s industrial strengths in EV development. Exporting completed buses or assembling them after export might not be the best way for Taiwan to enter the New Southbound market, especially as exporters would end up having a price war with China.
Taiwan should instead combine its experience and resources in the semiconductor and information and communication technology (ICT) industries to develop battery thermal management algorithms, data analytics and failure modes for the operational data of key components in electric buses. It should focus research and development on key subsystems that are critical to electric buses and play to the strengths of Taiwanese engineers.
Meanwhile, Taiwan should make use of the supply chain management experience of its semiconductor and ICT industries, engaging the local and foreign suppliers with the highest quality-to-price ratios to begin to compete in the international electric bus market.
Taiwan’s promotion of electric buses shows that — through the professional division of labor and original equipment manufacturing — such experience applies to its expansion into the New Southbound market. To facilitate a soft landing, Taiwanese businesses should cooperate with vehicle manufacturing facilities in New Southbound countries to gain a cost advantage and facilitate passing local certifications.
Taiwanese companies should handle foreign clients’ smart in-vehicle systems, including big data management, integrated design of vehicle assembly, electrical control systems and battery technology — using local components — while their foreign partners should be responsible for vehicle assembly.
With its experience and resources in the semiconductor and ICT industries, Taiwan would enjoy an advantage against international competition in smart transportation.
By following the smart transportation plan in the government’s Digital New Southbound Policy, Taiwan could anticipate positive outcomes in New Southbound countries.
Huang Chen-sheng is chairman of Tron-e Energy Technology Corp, and Wang Yi-chuan is chief of strategy at the Taiwan Thinktank.
Translated by Eddy Chang
China badly misread Japan. It sought to intimidate Tokyo into silence on Taiwan. Instead, it has achieved the opposite by hardening Japanese resolve. By trying to bludgeon a major power like Japan into accepting its “red lines” — above all on Taiwan — China laid bare the raw coercive logic of compellence now driving its foreign policy toward Asian states. From the Taiwan Strait and the East and South China Seas to the Himalayan frontier, Beijing has increasingly relied on economic warfare, diplomatic intimidation and military pressure to bend neighbors to its will. Confident in its growing power, China appeared to believe
After more than three weeks since the Honduran elections took place, its National Electoral Council finally certified the new president of Honduras. During the campaign, the two leading contenders, Nasry Asfura and Salvador Nasralla, who according to the council were separated by 27,026 votes in the final tally, promised to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan if elected. Nasralla refused to accept the result and said that he would challenge all the irregularities in court. However, with formal recognition from the US and rapid acknowledgment from key regional governments, including Argentina and Panama, a reversal of the results appears institutionally and politically
Legislators of the opposition parties, consisting of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), on Friday moved to initiate impeachment proceedings against President William Lai (賴清德). They accused Lai of undermining the nation’s constitutional order and democracy. For anyone who has been paying attention to the actions of the KMT and the TPP in the legislature since they gained a combined majority in February last year, pushing through constitutionally dubious legislation, defunding the Control Yuan and ensuring that the Constitutional Court is unable to operate properly, such an accusation borders the absurd. That they are basing this
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) was on Monday last week invited to give a talk to students of Soochow University, but her responses to questions raised by students and lecturers became a controversial incident and sparked public discussion over the following days. The student association of the university’s Department of Political Science, which hosted the event, on Saturday issued a statement urging people to stop “doxxing,” harassing and attacking the students who raised questions at the event, and called for rational discussion of the talk. Criticism should be directed at viewpoints, opinions or policies, not students, they said, adding
RSS