Starting from November, and in line with recent amendments to the Compulsory Automobile Liability Insurance Act (強制汽車責任保險法), electric bicycles (e-bikes) and other small electric two-wheeled vehicles must be licensed with mounted license plates before they can be ridden on the road.
This change should resolve some existing problems, such as the difficulty that e-bike owners have faced in receiving help to find their bikes if they are stolen, and the difficulty that road users have in holding anyone accountable when an accident occurs. It would also allow the more than 600,000 e-bikes that are currently being ridden on Taiwan’s roads to escape from their uncertain legal status and find their own niche in the system.
However, making e-bikes carry license plates is only the first step in solving a host of problems. Authorities still have their work cut out to ensure that e-bikes can be safely ridden on the roads, while also protecting the safety of all road users.
The “safety type approval management regulations for electrically power-assisted cycles and electric bicycles” (電動輔助自行車及電動自行車型式安全審驗管理辦法) stipulate that on its way from the factory to the road, an e-bike has to go through inspection, examination, reinspection, checking, random inspection and receiving a conformity certification sticker, plus the new procedure of licensing and issuance of a license plate, which involves a further check as to whether the previous procedure had been followed. As such, there should be no worries about the safety of e-bikes that are newly licensed from November onward.
However, what about the more than 600,000 e-bikes that are already on the road? Very few e-bikes on the market were made in Taiwan from start to finish — just as not many compressors used in Taiwan are made in Japan. The vast majority of e-bikes are assembled in Taiwan using components imported from China. Unscrupulous manufacturers have ways of getting around the complicated and intricate safety inspection and management procedures.
After assembling their products, they can either forge the conformity seal with its “lightning bolt” logo and the accompanying license plate, or buy fake ones online and then proceed to put their e-bikes on the market. What started out as an open secret in the e-bike business has since been exposed by amateur sleuths posting on the Internet.
Following a joint investigation by local governments, this matter has become an important issue that authorities must confront.
This issue is a test for the authorities as to how they should implement the consistency of production of e-bikes on the market, and highlights the importance of vehicle safety type approval. How can the authorities ensure the safety of e-bikes that have not gone through the legally required procedure? How can they implement a supplementary inspection and test program for e-bikes that are already on the road? Would it be legal to certify existing bikes on the spot, or should they all be recalled and retested before being licensed?
All of these questions should put the wisdom of transport authorities to the test. Furthermore, the new system is scheduled to be launched in less than two months, but the procedures have not been determined. This situation reveals the lax management of transport authorities and a serious lack of respect for the new system.
Wang Kuan-hsiang is secretary-general of the Taiwan Vehicle Industry Association.
Translated by Julian Clegg
Taiwan is a small, humble place. There is no Eiffel Tower, no pyramids — no singular attraction that draws the world’s attention. If it makes headlines, it is because China wants to invade. Yet, those who find their way here by some twist of fate often fall in love. If you ask them why, some cite numbers showing it is one of the freest and safest countries in the world. Others talk about something harder to name: The quiet order of queues, the shared umbrellas for anyone caught in the rain, the way people stand so elderly riders can sit, the
Taiwan’s fall would be “a disaster for American interests,” US President Donald Trump’s nominee for undersecretary of defense for policy Elbridge Colby said at his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday last week, as he warned of the “dramatic deterioration of military balance” in the western Pacific. The Republic of China (Taiwan) is indeed facing a unique and acute threat from the Chinese Communist Party’s rising military adventurism, which is why Taiwan has been bolstering its defenses. As US Senator Tom Cotton rightly pointed out in the same hearing, “[although] Taiwan’s defense spending is still inadequate ... [it] has been trending upwards
Small and medium enterprises make up the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, yet large corporations such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) play a crucial role in shaping its industrial structure, economic development and global standing. The company reported a record net profit of NT$374.68 billion (US$11.41 billion) for the fourth quarter last year, a 57 percent year-on-year increase, with revenue reaching NT$868.46 billion, a 39 percent increase. Taiwan’s GDP last year was about NT$24.62 trillion, according to the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, meaning TSMC’s quarterly revenue alone accounted for about 3.5 percent of Taiwan’s GDP last year, with the company’s
There is nothing the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) could do to stop the tsunami-like mass recall campaign. KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) reportedly said the party does not exclude the option of conditionally proposing a no-confidence vote against the premier, which the party later denied. Did an “actuary” like Chu finally come around to thinking it should get tough with the ruling party? The KMT says the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is leading a minority government with only a 40 percent share of the vote. It has said that the DPP is out of touch with the electorate, has proposed a bloated
RSS