7:41 am, December 1, 2011
GOOD grief, another kettle calamity at the start of my second full day in Taiwan. It’s too boring to go into but I missed my early-morning coffee for a second time. Not good!
Anyway, today, myself and my press colleagues had to pack properly to leave our rooms as we were heading south and ultimately to a second hotel about 80 miles away from Taipei.
Drizzle and overcast skies greeted us as we headed out of the city and onto the congested main road. Our first stop was the Pihsiang Manufacturing Machinery Company where company director Jeffrey Chang was waiting to greet us with exciting news from his firm.
After many successful years manufacturing buggies for disabled people and the elderly, the company has built a factory specifically to construct a new two-seater urban electric car, the Achensa: an abbreviation of achievement, environment and safety. Clever stuff.
Jeffrey Chang at Pihsiang unveils the logo for the company's new EV brand, Achensa
Seven thousand of the vehicles will be built next year during the first year of operation of Pihsiang’s factory, and the company has targeted mainland Europe as its market with the UK to follow maybe later.
The story provides a perfect example of Taiwan’s development from autoparts supplier to car manufacturer as the EV revolution gathers pace.
A delicious lunch at a vegetarian restaurant followed before a visit to the gleaming glass headquarters of Chroma, a world-leading supplier of automatic testing equipment. The firm is also strong on research and development.
Today’s two official visits were certainly interesting but the highlight was yet to come: a trip to the night market in Taichung, the location of our second hotel.
After hooking up with our colleagues from another press tour, we experienced an amazing array of sights, sounds and smells in the city streets… not to mention tastes. A lemon-flavoured iced drink with lashings of tapioca… interesting!
Dave Brown
