TARC Brings Onboard New Members to Upgrade Collective R&D Strength

The Taiwan Automotive Research Consortium (TARC), one of the key forces pushing the island's automotive parts sector, recently welcomed two new members to its team to engage in R&D, including the Hua-chuang Automobile Information Technical Center Co. Ltd. (HAITEC) and Dayeh University.

TARC has four founding members: the Mechanical and System Research Laboratories (MSL) of Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), the Automotive Research and Testing Center (ARTC), the Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (CSIST), and the Metal Industries Research and Development Center (MIRDC), as well as about 120 private suppliers and manufacturers.

Dayeh University has been the project coordinator in automotive-related academic science and technology development projects subsidized by the Department of Industrial Technology (DoIT) under the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA). The university has been associated with many academic institutions' vehicle-developmental divisions to jointly upgrade R&D capacities on various campuses, such as National Taipei University of Technology, National Formosa University, National Pingtung University of Science & Technology etc.

HAITEC is the key automotive-electronics development arm of local Yulon Group, the largest automobile manufacturing conglomerate in Taiwan. The company has been the key coordinator in industrial science and technology development projects subsidized by DOIT, leading a group of private, local automotive-electronic parts and systems suppliers and makers to jointly upgrade the island's strength.

HAITEC and some major counterparts have been aggressively developing homegrown passenger cars for several years, and the first achievement, a seven-seat multi-purpose van (MPV) is scheduled to be commercialized by the end of this year. Other participants include High Tech Computer Corp. (HTC), Lite-On Automotive, Advance Power Investment Co., Ltd. (CECTEK), Ta Yih Industrial Co., Everlight Electronics Co., Ltd., Taiwan Calsonics Co., Ltd. etc.

While all the institutional science and technology development projects sponsored by DOIT are mainly executed by the Mechanical & System Research Laboratories (MSL) of ITRI (specializing in powertrain systems), MIRDC (sheet-metal parts, materials, manufacturing techniques etc.), CSIST (radar and gunpowder used in airbag systems etc.), and ARTC (world-class certification and testing capability).

Joe Huang, president of ARTC and the steering chairman of TARC, stressed at the new member welcoming ceremony that an important goal of bringing onboard new TARC members is to further enhance and tap the advantages to be achieved by division-of-labor in the consortium, as well as speed the processes of product commercialization.

DOIT section chief Wang Yung-miao said optimistically at the ceremony that Taiwan's automotive sector is expected to soon catch up to global standards through the promotional, technical help offered by TARC, a process expected to be facilitated by the globally renowned capabilities-rapid learning, flexible manufacturing-often thought to be in readily-accessible, plentiful supply in Taiwan.

According to Huang, TARC has been the backbone of Taiwan's auto-parts and -system R&D projects. In the past few years, the alliance has developed many key automotive systems and transferred them to makers in the local, private sector, including advanced parking assist system (PAS) with trajectory guidance; light-emitting diode (LED) headlamp; adaptive front-lighting system (AFS); lane departure warning system (LDWS); night-vision system; collision avoidance radar; hybrid power system; light electric vehicle (LEV); telematics system; aluminum-alloy composite brake lining etc.