In order to meet COP26's target of reducing carbon emissions by 45% by 2030, Taiwan's Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) aims to electrify all public buses by 2030.
MOTC minister Wang Kwo-tsai said the administration is working on raising the market share of green energy vehicles and providing tax incentives to electric vehicle drivers. The ministry offers NT$8.5 billion (US$286.5 million) in subsidies for 3,000 new electric buses within four years.
From 2025 to 2030, the government may approve a new budget bill of NT$40.5 billion to accelerate the electrification of public buses in Taiwan.
Since 2011, the Taiwanese government has subsidized 1,156 electric buses, including 956 city buses.
The MOTC works with the Ministry of Economic Affairs, and the National Health Insurance Administration to devise four strategies of public bus electrification: to provide better services, to provide more incentives, to complete charging infrastructures, and to develop a global value chain of electric buses.
Subsidies from the MOTC require bus operators to adopt a certain proportion of locally produced components in the electric vehicles. Therefore, suppliers are working with research institutes and universities to develop relevant technologies, mainly focusing on battery cells.
A solid-state lithium metal battery project and a solid-sate anode-less lithium metal project led by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) have completed designing and testing the battery plates with energy density reaching 5mAh/cm2 so far. Its energy density could reach 400Wh/kg in the future to meet charging demand.
