Yulon Group, a major automobile manufacturing/sales conglomerate in Taiwan, recently started selling its own Luxgen line of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in the domestic market. To make the BEV, the M7 EV+, more popularly priced, Yulon directly sells the vehicle and provides battery-leasing service with low monthly installment. The LUXGEN M7 EV+ utilizes advanced core technology to achi...

By QUINCY LIANG Chang Hong Co., Ltd. is positioning to become the the world's largest producer of lithium iron phosphate oxide (LFPO) high energy-density power cells. Company chairman Chen Ming-der recently announced that his firm started mass producing the cells in May, 2014, and the company's high-tech factory at the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP) Houli Park is now operating at nearly fu...

By QUINCY LIANG Taiwan's Automotive Research & Testing Center (ARTC) recently announced its selection as the first overseas institute approved by the Union Technique de I'Automobile du motorcycle et du Cycle (UTAC) of France to provide electro-magnetic compatibility (EMC) certification services for assembled vehicles and auto parts. The approval is expected to help Taiwan expand exports of high-...

Eckart Mayer, president & CEO of Mercedes-Benz Taiwan Ltd., the local subsidiary of the German luxury car brand, recently said that his company expects to sell a record 18,000 cars in Taiwan this year and increase the number to about 20,000 in 2015. Driven by hot sales of entry-level models, Mercedes-Benz Taiwan scored a record-high annual sales volume in Taiwan of 16,700 units in 2013, up 25% f...

Cub Elecparts Inc., Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE)-listed maker of automotive electronics products, recently inaugurated a production line to produce tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) at its new factory in Taiwan, and said the line has maximum monthly production capacity of 200,000 TPMS sensors. The maker reported having won an order from a German distributor for 300,000 TPMS sensors,...

As an important event attached to the world's largest auto-parts trade show Automechanika Frankfurt, the Automechanika Innovation Awards is the most coveted innovation contest in the global automotive industry that honors innovations in auto parts development, pushes the next wave in the industry, and creates potentially promising business opportunities. Held alongside the biennial Automechanik...

Foxconn Group, part of Taiwan-headquartered Hon Hai Group, recently signed a cooperation agreement with a security company in Jiangxi Province, China, calling for the two parties to set up an open telematics operation center in the Nanchang Hi-Tech Zone, scheduled to start trial operation in January 2015 to provide telematics-related services. With high potential in interoperability tes...

Tong Yang Industrial Co., Ltd., a major auto-parts manufacturer in Taiwan, recently kicked off mass production of a new coating line at the company's original equipment (OE) auto-parts factory in Guanyin, northern Taiwan, which triples its OE-parts production capacity. Tong Yang says the new coating line is Taiwan's first electrostatic coating line for larger bumpers meeting European and Japa...

Hotai Motor Co. Ltd., Taiwan's agent of Toyotas and commercial vehicles as well as a major passenger-car vendor in Taiwan in the past 12 years, recently launched its first locally- assembled hybrid commercial truck series, the Hino 300 in 3.49-, 6.5- and 8-ton models. The vendor says its Hino series will outsell Fuso counterparts by 2015 to take the leading place in the commercial vehicle segm...

By QUINCY LIANG Taiwan's top transportation vehicle R&D and testing institution, the Automotive Research & Testing Center (ARTC), recently showcased a total of 13 technologies related to autonomous driving. The technologies have already been integrated in the center's autonomous car prototypes. ARTC chose to demonstrate the technologies, all of which are available for transfer to the privat...