France, Taiwan signs MOU on electric vehicles

The partnership is aimed at eventually pushing for mutual certification of electric vehicles from the two countries. Joe Huang (üS¡ÖÞ), the president of Taiwan’s Automotive Research & Testing Center (ARTC, ܇ÝvÑаlßBÃË) signed the cooperation agreement with Laurent Benoit, head of the Union Technique de l’Automobile du Motocycle et du Cycle (UTAC).

The ARTC, founded by various Taiwan government agencies and private enterprises, is a major developer of a wide range of services for the local car industry, such as research and development, testing and certification.

The UTAC is a private French company that has an official mandate for vehicle approval, safety testing and vehicle inspection.

Huang said the memorandum would pave the way for future cooperation between Taiwan and France, with the industrial sectors of both countries having high hopes of establishing a mutual certification system for electric vehicle production in the future.

Industrial Development Bureau Director-General Woody Duh (¶Å×ÏÜŠ) led Taiwan’s delegation to a bilateral industrial cooperation conference in Paris on Wednesday and witnessed Friday’s signing ceremony.

Taiwan and France have prioritized the development of electric vehicles in their future industrial cooperation, Duh said, and he described the memorandum as the fruit of two years of close bilateral industrial exchanges. Duh said Taiwan has laid a good foundation for electric vehicle production, in particular in the development of components such as batteries and power control systems, and he believed there was room for the local electric vehicle sector to grow.

Meanwhile, Venturi of France signed a letter of intent to purchase electric buses from Taiwan-based Advanced Lithium Electrochemistry Co (Á¢„PëŠÄÜ). The purchase is expected to total about NT$11.8 billion (US$399.97 million) over five years. In addition, Venturi is in talks with Taiwan’s EVT Technology (Ò×¾SÌؿƼ¼) to import key electric car components to France.

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