Figure 1. Tesla's electric vehicle
Once it completes its mission in the PC era, Taiwan, China will once again catch up with the development opportunities of the mobile phone era. The huge supply chain of electronic components and subsystems owned by Taiwan makes this small island in China born Global brand PC OEMs such as Acer and Asus, and smartphone supplier HTC. But the $64 billion question is if the same game plan works just as well for a region that is looking to crack the auto market.
Conventional wisdom says this is unlikely. Most Western auto industry analysts believe that despite Taiwan's well-established supply chain, it lacks the experience needed to build integrated safety systems and meet stringent functional safety requirements. Given the complexity of automobiles, it would take decades to nurture the industry in any country.
However, some industry watchers in Taiwan say the advent of electric vehicles may lead to preconceptions. Taiwan's Minister of Science and Technology Chen Liangji is such a contrarian. In an exclusive interview with the media, he told us: "Electronics is the core of electric vehicle products, and the electric vehicle industry should be able to exert our strength."
Figure 2. The core of electric vehicles is electronics. The story of Tesla employee Azizi Tucker, now the CTO of Xing Mobility, an electric vehicle powertrain company founded in Taipei in 2015. American engineer-entrepreneur Tucker has decided to leave Tesla and stay in Taiwan, capitalizing on its potential as a future leader in electric vehicle development.
Tucker came to Taiwan as a senior vendor development engineer. He told the outlet: "In this role, I am responsible for making sure that suppliers can produce the parts Tesla (Tesla) needs.I spend most of my time in Taiwan and part of my job is helping Tesla's car factory get up and running in Taiwan Linkou. "With the establishment of a motor assembly plant in Taiwan, Tesla has an extensive local supply chain system.
Taiwan Telematics Industry Association Secretary-General Paul Chou predicts: "In today's development of internal combustion engines, building the automotive industry may require 50 years. But for electric vehicles, we think we can do it in Taiwan in less than five years. "
sounds good and looks like it's possible, and implementing Paul Chou's language might not be far off, especially when you consider that many EV startups have exploded in China.
How it all started...
Paul Zhou believes that in an era when the auto industry was barely known, Tesla was struggling to break into the tight-knit automotive supply chain. Then Tesla sent a team of engineers to Taiwan to find zeroes for the first commercial vehicle, the Tesla Roadster. Parts.
Tucker and his team not only sought out willing suppliers, but came to Taiwan with the difficult task of "developing non-automotive suppliers to a standard of excellence," Tucker wrote on his LinkedIn page.
Tesla The team could tap any of several Asian countries to suit their needs. Why did it end up in Taiwan?
Tucker admits: “My work takes me all over Asia. During my time working in factories in China, Japan, Korea and Thailand, I started to see the benefits of Taiwanese supply chain. "In his view," Taiwan's supply chain, made up of suppliers to mostly small and medium-sized family businesses, makes the supply chain for electric vehicles very flexible. And this does not exist in the mainland, Thailand and Japan.
Tucker added, “For electric vehicles ( powertrain business), this flexibility is very important.We are developing new technology and need to adapt the existing to process to make new parts and components. This is what I think Taiwan is a good choice for starting an electric vehicle company. “
The fact that Tesla’s early technology originated in Taiwan is no secret. According to Zhou’s estimates, the first Tesla Roadster sourced 30 to 40 percent of its components from Taiwanese suppliers.
For example, special The engine of Sla's Roadster comes from Taiwan's Foton Electronics. Control circuits such as inverters come from Chroma ATE.
Taiwan's local electric vehicle company
Today, there are at least two well-known electric vehicle companies in Taiwan, Xing Mobility Company and Electric Power Technology Limited.
Xing Mobility Co-founder and CEO Royce YC Hong explained that despite Xing Mobility's fame, the company The rally electric supercar "Miss R" brings, but Xing Mobility is not in the business of "building and selling hypercars." He noted that his company's goal is as an electric powertrain supplier. “Xing Mobility chose the electric supercar (Xing Mobility) as the R&D platform and proof-of-concept platform for our electric drivetrain technology for the most demanding performance metrics,” he said.
Xing Mobility A limited number of products (19 units) are being built, each priced at $1 million. “This allows us to use the most advanced materials and the most aggressive approach to achieve our performance goals that would otherwise be impossible with traditional industry norms and methods. Breakthroughs in battery and transmission technology are made possible," the CEO explained.
But how is the "Miss R" different from Tesla's second-generation 2020 Roadster (a roadster)?
As opposed to the Roadster, which aims to emulate the driving experience of a modern sports car, Royce YC Hong, co-founder and CEO of Xing Mobility, declares that he has completely different aspirations for the "Miss R", namely "on the road, on the Achieve incredible performance on the track and off-road and enable a versatile driving experience the driver has never used before."
Specifically, he calls the "Miss R" "the world's first electric on- and off-road capable electric vehicle." Super sports car", which has "four-wheel torque vectoring for incredible speed". Powered by four independent 350V motors, Xing's prototype supercar "is expected to accelerate to 0-100km/h performance in 1.8 seconds, 0-200km/h performance in 5.1 seconds, and more than 270km/h top speed in hours," the CEO claimed.
Figure 3, Xing Mobility's "Miss R" sports car (Photo: Xing Motors)
To be clear, Xing Mobility has no intention of competing with other electric vehicle manufacturers. Hong emphasized that his mission is to "empower every automaker in the world." In other words, while Tesla aspires to be a world-class automaker, "we are passionate about being a powerhouse for commercial and recreational vehicle manufacturers. Supplier of Assembly Systems".
Figure 4. Stakeholders of the Taiwan Automotive Research Consortium (TARC) attended the recent Taiwan Auto Show
Electric Power Technology Limited (Eptech, Electric Power Technology Limited) is another Taiwanese company in the electric vehicle market. Unlike Xing Mobility, it's not a nascent startup. Eptech was established in 1987 as a power tool manufacturing company, manufacturing and distributing hand-held power tools and components.
Figure 5. Nanhuang Traffic Instrument Co., Ltd. launched the "YangPo" brand of ceramic brake pads at the recent Taipei Auto Show.
Eptech started electric vehicle R&D projects more than ten years ago. By 2015, the company will unveil an electric concept of the Thunder-powered sedan at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Last year, Eptech spun off its electric vehicle team to become an independent investment firm called Thunder Power EV. The
industry chain is complete. This should be the main reason why Tesla chose Taiwan!
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