Teco Showcases Rim Motors for EVs at 2012 EV Taiwan

Taipei, April 19, 2012 (CENS)--Teco Group, a major electrical-machinery conglomerate in Taiwan, recently demonstrated newly-developed motors for electric vehicles as scooters, cars and buses at the just-ended 2012 Taiwan Int'l Electric Vehicle Show (EV Taiwan) in Taipei, capital of Taiwan.

Teco Chairman C.K. Liu said his group will explore the hybrid-car market initially and may cooperate with the Tata Group of India.

According to Liu, Teco will focus on several key EV application sectors, including electric car, e-scooter, hybrid car (aftermarket) and e-tricycle, aiming to create a comprehensive range of EV-motor products to tap global EV makers' supply chains.

At the 2012 EV Taiwan, the group showcased its rim (in-hub) motors for big e-scooters, which will be commercialized in June, and will export the first batch of 100 e-scooter rim motors to Japanese customers as Isuzu and Mitsubishi.

Teco's rim motors is a hybrid-car conversion solution developed in partnership with local assembled-EV manufacturer Pihsiang Machinery Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (PMMC). According to Liu, it takes less than two weeks to modify an internal combustion engine (ICE) car into a hybrid, and that Teco's hybrid conversion is easy to install by replacing the original two wheels with the electric rim motors and adding the battery pack in the trunk.

A Teco executive said a taxi running eight hours/160 kilometers per day will use only about NT$50 (less than US$2) in fuel with the kit, compared to about NT$800 (US$27) of an ICE counterpart, hence saving over NT$200,000 (US$6,667) in fuel a year, with an investment of about NT$300,000 (US$10,000) for the modification kit.

Teco also plans to cooperate with Indian automaker Tata for its city cars are very suitable for the hybrid modification kit, said Liu, as well as partnering with e-scooter maker Vetrix and e-tricycle makers who target the Southeast Asia and the Middle East markets.