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Master Transportation Chairman Dingfa Wu, a major Kuo Kuang Motor Operator shareholder, accepted an exclusive interview with "Wind Media." (Photo by Chenghui Ke)
Taiwan's electric bus industry has developed for more than ten years. The market is almost exclusively dominated by relatively low-priced Chinese-made assembled electric buses. Local brands have always been rare in sight in Taiwan. This year (2021) is uncharacteristic. One veteran bus company who have been paddling for many years has finally surfaced and announced an expansion of investment and production capacity of electric buses.
"In the past year, what changes in the market, and what difficulties will local businesses face in the future?"
Wind Media interviewed Master Transportation Chairman Dingfa Wu, a major shareholder of Kuo Kuang Motor Operator, hoping to find out the answers to his idea of giving up at one point to becoming an international player.
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Master Transportation is one of the top domestic bus manufacturers and the largest shareholder of Kuo Kuang Motor Operator. Long before the government announced to support the local electric bus industry vigorously, Chairman Dingfa Wu decided to invest in research and development of electric buses; unfortunately, the market's impression of electric buses came from Chinese-made products. High-quality domestic electric bus brands are generally not well accepted by the locals. With the unclear government policy and regulations, his confidence has been frustrated, and related plans have been suspended for two years.
Today, the electric bus developed and produced by Chengyun Motors has been approved by the Ministry of Communications as a Piloting Plan vehicle and has also won many overseas orders. It is actively negotiating in Saudi Arabia, the United States, Japan, India, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. In the pace of becoming an internationalized brand and leading the market.
Recalling his journey over the years, Dingfa Wu couldn't help showing a wry smile in an exclusive interview with "Wind Media" and admitted that he once did not know whether to continue to develop electric buses. Even now, Master Transportation still faces many challenges. The following is a summary of the interview:
Forced to find a way out under the impact of high-speed railway, the bus operator industry strives to become intelligent and digital.
Wind Media: When did Master Transportation invest in electric bus research and development?
Dingfa Wu: I started to notice electric buses because of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Until the 2012 World Expo, the Chinese regarded electric vehicles as a vital propaganda point. During those four years, I did a lot of studies and research. I traveled to China frequently, visited many electric bus manufacturers, and talked to many drivers and maintenance personnel. In 2014, we decided to give up importing electric buses from China and want to develop and produce our brand.
Wind Media: Since there are already ready-made electric buses on the market, what considerations measurements did Master Transportation decide to develop and produce electric buses by itself?
A: I look at it from two perspectives. The first is from the perspective of the industry. From the Kyoto Protocol to the Paris Agreement, it can be seen that under the pressure of climate change, the world has reached an unstoppable level of its need for emission reduction. At that time, the first thing that came to my mind was that diesel is a fuel with relatively high carbon emissions and significantly impacts the public environment. If it is to be reviewed in the future, reducing diesel is likely to be the highest priority. The problem is right in front of us. It's just to see if we need to respond in advance.
Second, because Master Transportation is a major shareholder of Kuo Kuang Motor Operator, I am also one of the decision-makers of Kuo Kuang, which means that I have the identity of an operator at the same time. At the time, Kuo Kuang was facing the challenge of reducing costs under the impact of a high-speed railway, and I noticed Kuo Kuang's three major expenditures were personnel, fuel, and operation management. After studying all the information, the solution I got was that Kuo Kuang needs to develop an intelligent and digitalized electric bus.