Tariff Challenges, EV Advances at Mobility 360

We check in on Foxconn, Master Bus, PEWC and NUK at Taiwan’s big trade show for the transportation industry.

May 19, 2025

Sebastian Blanco

The 2025 edition of Taiwan’s 360 Mobility show featured companies promoting a wide range of automotive solutions, but the show didn’t quite feel the way it used to.

Andrew Pearson, manager at the Taiwan-based Nuk Auto Parts Co., told SAE Media during the event in late April that he mostly saw Taiwanese potential customers at the show, a big difference from the past 15 years of participating in the show. He said uncertainties surrounding trade and tariffs were limiting the audience.

“It’s very difficult, it’s very unstable,” he said. “Right now, a lot of customers are waiting for the 90-day pause. In the future, we have to wait until Trump says what is going to be the final

Pearson said NUK was indeed taking a wait-and-see approach to the situation, with the biggest effects landing on the 10% of NUK’s business in the U.S. One problem, he said, was the decreased buying power of American companies.

“It’s not a big part, but it will be influenced by the U.S. dollar,” he said. “A lot of countries will stop and wait until the U.S. dollar becomes stable, then they will buy. Right now, everything has stopped.”

A replacement electric water pump for a Lexus E300H, made by NUK. (Sebastian Blanco)

NUK was displaying some of its new products - all replacements for OEM parts, mostly for the Asian market - at the show, including new electronically controlled water pumps, fan clutches and fuel pumps. Pearson said higher-quality chips and sensors are making these new components possible.

“If you buy from China, maybe the quality will last for six months or one year. With this, we can offer longer performance or three, four or five years.” NUK does buy some components, like housings, from China, but makes its electronics domestically.

Pacific Electric Wire and Cable Company (PEWC), one of the largest wire and cable manufacturers in Taiwan, introduced a new pair of EV fast-charging cables, with one version able to up to 500 kW, and another that can handle up to 800 kW. These cables have what a PEWC spokesperson called “perfect heat dissipation,” that will keep the temperature under 40 º C (104 º F). The lightweight charging cable has also been certified under IEC 62893. PEWC was also dispaying its new high-efficiency EV motor with hairpin winding that the spokesperson

said offered 25% higher slot filling rate, 40% lower resistance, 20% smaller motor size and 30% higher power output. The motor was designed with a universal stator to fit other manufacturers ’rotors to make developing high-power EV motors faster and more cost-effective, PEWC said.

Master Bus, a Taiwanese bus manufacturer with over 20 years of experience, announced it will launch an electric intercity coach in mid-June. The company currently has over 400 electric city buses operating in Taiwan with LTO (lithium titanate oxide) chemistry. Master Bus has orders for 500 more to reach approximately 1,000 units in Taiwan next year. The new intercity coach has a 218 kWh battery pack that offers a range of around 900-1000 km (559-621 miles).

A Master Bus spokesperson said there was a specific reason for choosing LTO when other bus makers might choose another chemistry that’s cheaper or has a higher energy capacity: safety.

“You will never know when an accident happens, especially when you’re carrying so many people’s lives,” he said. “That battery has been tasked. If you squeeze it, you penetrate it, you will not get fires. This is one of the categories that we are proud of.”

Like NUK, Taiwanese powerhouse Foxconn was a repeat visitor - if only for the third time - at the 360 Mobility show this year. Foxconn usually rents out the entire Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, but the company only had a medium-sized booth at 360 Mobility (held in that same exhibition center).

Foxconn had some prototype EVs on display, with the Foxconn Model C mid-size crossover SUV also available on the road in some markets as the Luxgen n7. Foxconn announced a version of the Model C for North American customers in October, but there have been no updates since then. Depending on a company’s involvement level, Foxconn offers whole car design and manufacturing services, component design and production, and contract design and manufacturing services (CDMS).

“One example [of CDMS] is that the Luxgen brand,” a Foxconn spokesperson told SAE Media. “They liked the design of our Model C, and after some adjustments and some specifications to meet their spec, they can directly sell it under their brand. So it’s now the Luxgen n7.”

If only everything were that simple.