MOU Signed With UL to Build EV Certification Capacity in Taiwan

Building EVs and parts to UL standards is key to local player's future on global stage

Continuing efforts to help electric-vehicle (EV) makers and related industries build products meeting global standards, Taiwan's Automotive Research & Testing Center (ARTC) and the Taiwan Electric Research & Testing Center (TERTEC) recently signed a cooperation memorandum of understanding (MOU), witnessed by Chen Jay-san, Director General of the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection (BSMI) under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, with the Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL), whose ubiquitous label is generally regarded as trustworthy and credible, and held a series of joint technical seminars discussing assembled EV and key-parts certifications.

UL is the largest and oldest nationally-recognized testing laboratory in the United States, according to its website, as well a global, independent safety science company offering testing and certification to five strategic businesses: product safety, environment, life & health, university and verification services.

The MOU formalizes to a degree the earnestness of the ARTC and TERTEC to develop EVs and parts that meet UL standards, which is frequently seen as the royal seal-of- approval in the United States, as SGS-certified products in Asia and Taiwan, with the two officially-backed organizations to target EV electrical safety, power cells, motor, drivers, charging systems, and charging stations.

Joe Huang, president of ARTC, says the EV sector is undoubtedly a hotbed for future investment attracting global attention. Data compiled by the International Energy Agency (IEA) under the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) show the annual production value of the global EV industry will exceed some NT$1.4 trillion (about US$46.7 billion) in 10 years, suggesting ever more nations are promoting and investing in EVs under the growing threat of global warming.

“How to leverage existing resources in Taiwan's information and communication technology (ICT) industry and strong R&D capacity in intelligent-vehicle key systems and modules to help local companies tap into the global EV makers' supply chains is our top-priority, but the overriding task is to set up world-class testing, certification capability in Taiwan to label locally-made EVs and parts as meeting international standards,” Huang says. Actually the BSMI, whose services are similar to that offered by the UL, has been trying to achieve such goal, and has played a part in helping the ARTC and TERTEC to partner with the American testing service provider, according to Huang.

ARTC's Efforts
According to Huang, the ARTC has begun various projects to help local EV and key-parts makers, including proposing performance/safety standards for assembled EVs and key systems/parts, building a sound testing and certification environment on the island, conducting EV demonstrations in designated zones, exchanging information internationally, participating in setting up international organizations to form global standards, and helping makers to improve products etc.

The ARTC, he stresses, also has been developing key EV systems and integrating technologies. In 2010, for example, the ARTC tied up with groups of makers in Taiwan to set up R&D alliances to develop extended range electric vehicle (EREV), EV chassis, intelligent EVs.

UL's Role
Weifang Zhou, vice president of UL Greater China, says "safety" is the key challenge for successful development and commercialization of EVs, meaning Taiwan's EV industry can only upgrade its global acceptability and international competitiveness by regulating and introducing the most advanced EV-related safety standards and certification systems. UL, he adds, has set many EV-related safety standards worldwide and participated in various standard-setting programs in many industrially advanced nations. Signing the MOU with UL enables the ARTC, TERTEC and Taiwan's EV operators to develop more globalized, bigger-scale and full-range EV certification techniques, which are decisive in winning more lucrative business opportunities for the island, stresses Zhou, who adds that cost and safety are the two critical factors during EV commercialization, with the latter currently being the priority.

TERTEC
Fang Chun-te, president of TERTEC, says charging equipment and motor (and controller) are the heart of EVs and their safety, with onboard charging systems and easily-accessible charging stations/infrastructure to make or break the EV industry. So the TERTEC has the onus to accelerate setting up sufficient testing and certification capacity for charging facilities, motors and controllers to be the standard-setter and watchdog in Taiwan, hence helping to popularize EVs on the island by minimizing safety concerns.

Taiwan's Edge

Responding to reporters, Huang says Taiwan has advantages and can contribute to the global EV line as an early bird in the sector. The operators in Taiwan can build footholds in many niches. For example, so far no safety standards have existed for battery-penetration and impact tests. In addition, electro-magnetic compatibility (EMC) and performance tests for batteries are also essential in the EV industry.

Huang says that EV and parts makers are confounded by non-uniform standards worldwide, though most nations aim to gradually adopt globally-accepted standards and map out universally-accepted EV-safety certification systems; while the ARTC is looking closely at major standards in Europe, the U.S., and China.

BSMI's Plan

Chen Jay-san, Director General of BSMI, says no nation so far has comprehensive safety certification standards for EVs, EMC, performance, battery, motor, charging station etc. Over the next two years, BSMI will cooperate with global partners to develop 17 standards for EVs and related products; while the MOEA will over the next three years try to find the best business model and map out a developmental blueprint for the EV industry in Taiwan, as well as looking to the EV line as the next globally-competitive sector to attract more players, taking after the world-class ICT industry.

TERTEC's Fang says that some 45,000 EVs will roam the roads by 2015, and Taiwan's authorities are obliged to speed building up certification systems for the local players to tap more business opportunities in this rapidly rising market.

To help local EV and parts makers, Huang says the ARTC will set up in 2012 the EMC laboratory with the world's highest capacity, which can certify even buses. And various institutes in Taiwan are already dividing up EV certification tasks, with the ITRI and ARTC to handle EV power cells, the ARTC and UL batter packs, the TERTEC motors, inverters, and converters, charging equipment and stations.

China is Key Market

All the VIPs at the MOU signing agreed unanimously that China is to be the dominant market for Taiwan-made EVs and parts.

The ARTC hopes to see Taiwan and China jointly build the EV sector, a goal towards which the Center is forging by having set up a special taskforce with a vehicle technical center in Tianjin, China, as well as working on initial issues to try to achieve results soon. The Center also aims to promote Taiwan-made EV products worldwide. In mid-2010, a group of Taiwanese representatives visited American automakers in Detroit and the ARTC signed a cooperation MOU with the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), expressing the ARTC's eagerness to contribute to EV development under the guidance of the premier powered-vehicle engineering organization.